• Mammoet transports a 1,200 tonne bunker of the New Hollandic Waterline on 88 Scheuerle SPMT (Self-Propelled Modular Transporter) axle lines
• With the help of the Scheuerle SPMTs, the bunker is transformed into a “Objet Trouvé” – an object which has been playfully placed at a new angle

Over 2,000 spectators gathered to attend the “spectacle” taking place at the bank of the Lek shipping channel near the Dutch town of Vreeswijk. The mission: lifting a 1,200-tonne concrete bunker from its anchoring, transport it around one hundred metres away, and then re- positioned onto the new foundations at an angle – in an almost playful way. A total of three bunkers are to be moved along with two water management structures in order to allow the shipping lane to be widened.

In the weeks prior to the transport, a specially constructed gantry was positioned on 88 Scheuerle SPMT axle lines, the bunker was disconnected from its foundations and then detached from the anchorage. This was not an easy task as drilling the holes to enable the gantry to be attached was difficult – only by using special drills could the heavily reinforced concrete be drilled through. On the other hand, the SPMTs from Scheuerle functioned without any problems whilst handling the difficult temporary road surface running between the old and new locations as well as the gantry´s high centre of gravity.

In order not to jeopardise the contemporary witness character of the bunker and to avoid the impression that history had been manipulated, the bunkers are randomly angled slightly upwards as “Objet Trouvé” at their new locations. Thus, it is always easy to see that they are not in their original positions.

The colossus was constructed before the Second World War as part of a series of defence structures designed to protect the Netherlands against the invasion of enemy forces. Nobody at the time would have imagined that three of these giants would be moved to a new location years later.