Issue 78

S. Majer et alii, Fracture and Structural Integrity, 78 (2026) 504-518; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.78.29

repetitions, but by individual, extreme loading events associated with critical cargo-handling operations or the transportation of oversized components. The ongoing expansion of offshore wind infrastructure has further escalated the mechanical demands imposed on port facilities. Manufacturing plants, storage yards, assembly areas, and installation terminals must accommodate wind turbine components whose dimensions and weights continue to increase with each successive technological generation. As a result, pavement structures are increasingly required to sustain localized forces that far exceed the boundaries traditionally considered in pavement engineering practice [2]. Within the Ports of Szczecin and Ś winouj ś cie, the most critical operational loads are generated by mobile harbour cranes, container handling equipment, rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTG), heavy transport vehicles, and specialized modular systems used for transporting oversized cargo. Representative configurations of such equipment are analyzed in the following subsections. Mobile harbour cranes and cargo handling equipment The ports of Szczecin and Ś winouj ś cie utilize a variety of heavy cargo-handling equipment, including mobile harbour cranes, reach stackers, heavy forklifts, and specialized transport vehicles. Depending on the equipment type and operational configuration, individual axle loads may significantly exceed conventional limits. The mobile harbour cranes considered in this study (Gottwald, Demag, and Liebherr) are transported within the port area without a lifted load; therefore, the corresponding axle loads represent the unloaded travelling configuration. In contrast, reach stackers, such as the Linde C4531 and Valmet, may operate both with and without a load. For this reason, axle loads for these machines are presented for both loaded and unloaded configurations. Tab. 1 presents representative axle loads adopted from the technical specifications of the respective equipment and used as input data for the pavement design analyses.

Name (lifting capacity) Gottwald (60 t) Gottwald (100 t) Linde C4531 (45 t)

Front axle loaded [t]

Front axle unloaded [t]

Rear axle loaded [t]

Rear axle unloaded [t]

– –

60.0 61.0 36.4 17.5 17.0 20.0

– –

60.0 61.0 35.0 29.0 16.2

101.9

14.5

Demag (65 t) Valmet (21 t)

–

–

50.1

4.1

Liebherr LHM 280 20.0 Table 1: Representative axle loads of selected cargo-handling equipment used in the Ports of Szczecin and Ś winouj ś cie). – –

Figure 5: Representative heavy cargo-handling equipment operating within the Ports of Szczecin and Ś winouj ś cie [5].

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