[Job Story] Ten Liebherr Excavators at Work on West African Railway Project

The Portuguese construction company Mota-Engil has acquired ten new A 922 Rail Litronic Liebherr excavators. The railroad excavators will be used to create the track infrastructure of a major railway project that will connect the Nigerian city of Kano with Maradi in the south of Niger.

The design and construction of the Kano-Maradi railway line between Nigeria and neighbouring Niger is the largest contract in Mota-Engil’s history, with a contract value of around USD 1.8 billion. The approximately 284-km-long line will connect the Nigerian city of Kano with Maradi in the south of Niger.

The excavators will be used for grading work and laying rails, sleepers and ballast as well as points. After the completion of the railway line network, the machines will be used for track maintenance work.

A 922 Rail Litronic Railroad Excavator

As a railroad excavator, the A 922 Rail Litronic can be used both on roads and on railway tracks. A rail guide system, which is attached to both sides of the undercarriage, brings the tyres to rail level during the changeover to rail. The inner wheels of the twin tyres are then used for the rail-based travel drive. Thanks to a 120 kW / 163 hp construction machine engine and an optimally tuned hydraulic system, the excavator achieves high working speeds with the usual fluid attachment movements. Its innovative hydraulic concept includes a Liebherr variable-displacement double pump with an independent regulating circuit. Powerful, hydraulic attachments can thus be operated independently of the machine’s working and driving movements.

The Mota-Engil machine package also includes numerous Liebherr attachments such as swivelling ditch-cleaning-buckets, clamshell buckets and backhoe buckets. To ensure quick and safe replacements of both mechanical and hydraulic attachments, the customer’s machines are also equipped with the fully automatic quick-coupling system Solidlink.