Giant construction machines make their way to bauma 2010 in Munich

Spring started in Bavaria this last weekend. And along with it came the first of the giant construction machines - arriving at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre. The entire open-air site is a hive of activity at the moment - drilling, digging, hammering and assembly work is going on everywhere, to make sure the display is in tip-top shape ready for the opening of bauma.

Between 19 and 25 April 2010 the International Trade Fair for Construction Machinery, Building Material Machines, Mining Machines, Construction Vehicles and Construction Equipment, is opening its doors in Munich for the 29th time. And this time it will be even bigger and stronger than ever before: a new all-time record is being set for exhibition space at over 555,000 square metres; and over 3,000 exhibitors from all over the world will be here. Among the exhibits announced for the exhibition are many world premieres and an impressive array of heavyweight machinery. The only place to see such an extensive display of this kind is every three years in Munich.

From today onwards we are expecting around 6,000 trucks to arrive at the fair ground, bringing stand-building equipment and exhibits in time for the show. Some of the largest exhibits arrive in sections, in separate deliveries, for assembly at the exhibition centre.

bauma Exhibition Director Georg Moller comments: "Despite the logistics challenge faced in particular by our technical team and transport coordinators, we are really looking forward to this unique set-up phase for bauma. Each day we are excited to see the tremendous progress being made on setting up the stands and assembling the machines. The site fills up more and more each day."

The heaviest exhibits in particular have been travelling to the show for weeks, some by sea, some by rail, before making the last part of the journey to the fair by truck.

One of those giants is the 4200 SM Surface Miner from the Wirtgen Group, a machine that is normally used in opencast mining, where it cuts, crushes and loads up to 12 million tonnes of material per year. It weighs in at a proud 200 tonnes, at a length of 30 metres. The operator?s cabin has a panorama window for excellent visibility. Before this mining giant can be presented to the public in Munich on 19 April, it will have completed a long journey and undergone many hours of assembly on site.

In early March, the Surface Miner left the works in Windhagen, near Bonn, by truck to go to the docks on the Rhine at Andernach, from where it was transported by ship for several days on the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal to Kelheim. Last weekend it was lifted with great care from the ship onto a truck by two cranes, and escorted by police on the last leg of its journey to Munich. The pieces are now being assembled here ready for the start of bauma, and then the 4200 SM will receive a final lick of paint.

Another 500 HGVs are expected to arrive soon in Munich, some of them bringing exhibits from destinations outside Germany. In the run-up to bauma 2010 these large loads will be seen on the motorways and roads around Munich, making their way to the New Munich Trade Fair Centre.