VOLVO CE FLOATS L260H ACROSS SWISS LAKE TO CUSTOMER QUARRY

It took a tugboat and floating pontoon to deliver a Volvo L260H across the picturesque Lake Thun in the Swiss Canton of Bern to the quarry owned by AG Balmholz.

Its exceptional location in the Bernese foothills of the Alps, on the steep northern shore of Lake Thun makes transportation of goods and mining materials to and from the quarry a challenge. Although accessible via the winding lake road that runs between Thun and Interlaken, the route which is popular with day trippers and motorcyclists is limited to loads of 34 tons. So, it was not possible to transport the wheel loader by road.

Excavating hard rock for railway infrastructure
The quarry is just one of only 10 in the whole of Switzerland to provide a valuable source of a special dense, compact and high pressure-resistant hard rock. Every year, the workforce at AG Balmholz extract around 250,000 tons of hard rock, which is processed into blocks for hydraulic engineering, railway ballasts, chippings and crushed sand. Much of this material is transported to customers throughout Switzerland on ships across the water to Thun, where it is offloaded and then transported by rail.

Robust and reliable
The mining of hard rocks, such as those found at Lake Thun, is material intensive and requires reliable, durable machinery. Many factors played a role in the decision to choose the Volvo wheel loader.

Depending on the blade used, the breakout force of the Volvo L260H is between 256 kN and 336 kN. Other qualities, such as cab comfort and simple serviceability also met their requirements, and the team were all in agreement that the Volvo wheel loader would complement the existing machine park.




The 35-ton wheel loader offers a static tipping load at full turn of almost 24 tons. A longer wheelbase than its predecessor means the L260H can be mounted with a larger bucket, which adds to the overall efficiency and productivity. AG Balmholz’s new wheel loader has a bucket capacity of 6.5m³.

1,000 operating hours
As soon as the L260H was unloaded at the quarry, it was put to work. AG Balmholz plans to use the wheel loader for around 1,000 operating hours per year for the next 10 years, before it will be time to replace this hard-working machine.