WOLFF on a Narrow Ridge: Complete Solution for the Complex Rehabilitation of the Lavalette Dam in France

03.02.2026 | News

The construction works on the dam include the complete replacement of three floodgates dating back to the 1950s, as well as the modernization of a fourth gate from the 1990s, all of which have suffered significant wear after decades of operation. With a hook height of 20.4 meters, a jib length of 40 meters, and a maximum lifting capacity of 16 tons, the WOLFF 7534.16 Clear is responsible for installing temporary structures as well as lifting out and installing the old and new gates.

“The dam crest is only 6.7 meters wide, which made crane erection and delivery logistics a demanding task for our team,” says Cécile Caron, Sales Director at WOLFFKRAN. “Wind gusts exceeding 45 km/h further complicated the installation and extended the assembly time from the planned two days to around 3.5 days,” says Cécile Caron.

Portal Solution Keeps Traffic Moving

As a road runs across the dam and cannot be closed for the entire construction period, the WOLFF crane was installed on a WOLFF City Portal 520 (with a side length of 5.2 meters), allowing traffic to pass underneath. In a first step, 12-meter load distribution beams were installed using a mobile crane to distribute the crane loads evenly across the dam crest. As a second step, another 90-ton mobile crane erected both the City Portal and the flat top tower crane. In spite of the City Portal solution, the road is closed on weekdays between 9 am and 2 pm, as the crane is not permitted to slew loads over the active roadway for safety reasons. All lifting operations must therefore be carried out within this time frame.

One WOLFF for Everything

One particularly challenging phase of the project was the removal of the counterweight of one of the existing floodgates. The concrete block, weighing approximately 51 tons, could not be moved as a single unit, and was therefore split into sections on site. The individual segments, weighing up to 16 tons, were then removed using the WOLFF crane.

“WOLFFKRAN was the only provider able to offer a complete solution consisting of the crane, portal structure, assembly and service under the given constraints” says François-Xavier Béthuel, Head of the Crane Division at Legendre Matériel. “The Wolffkran team was closely involved in site planning from an early stage and is also responsible for operation, service, and maintenance throughout the approximately 24-month construction period, allowing us to source everything from a single provider.”

The WOLFF 7534.16 Clear is expected to continue working on the Lavalette dam until March 2027.