A job at lofty heights

“The smallest mistake can be fatal here”

Excavator operator Hubert Theunis fights his way through the stone at a rate of one meter per day.(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart)

Hubert Theunis has nerves of steel. He spends his working day with his excavator at a height of 50 meters on bridge piers. "The smallest mistake can have fatal consequences," Theunis is aware, but he still enjoys going to work every day with great anticipation.

"You have to be a bit special to do something like this. I just love challenges," laughs Hubert Theunis. By "special", the 38-year-old from Hollersbach in Pinzgau means his rather unusual place of work. The Salzburg native sits at a height of up to 50 meters on a bridge pier in Regau that is just four meters wide - in an excavator.

A nightmare for anyone who suffers from a fear of heights. His mission: he is crushing the six bridge piers of the Aurach Bridge on the Westautobahn, which will be rebuilt by 2025. The cost: 65 million euros.

One of the few authorized
Hubert Theunis is on the job because he is one of the few people in Austria who can do this work. The trained excavator operator has specialized in operating so-called walking excavators - which have four legs that can be independently adapted to the terrain - and has set up his own business at home in Hollerbach. And what does his working day look like?

Hubert Theunis with his excavator.(Bild: zVg)

"The excavator is lifted onto the pillars with a crane. Every morning I'm lifted up there and then I work there all day." Sounds quite unspectacular so far - if it weren't for the height and the literally narrow ridge on which the Salzburg native moves every day. "It's very tight up there, but of course that's also what makes it so exciting. You always have to be highly concentrated. The slightest mistake can have fatal consequences," says Theunis, aware of the danger.

Difficult search for colleagues
So it's no wonder that the most difficult part of the job was finding a man for the second excavator. "Most of them turned me down straight away," says the man from Salzburg, who has now found someone. The two of them now sit in their work equipment for hours on end - as they also work at lofty heights - and dig their way down, so to speak. They manage around one meter a day.

Theunis at work.(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart)

Bit by bit, he works his way down.(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart)

The excavator is lifted to the work site every day.(Bild: zVg)

The excavator is secured
"It's basically millimeter work. We work our way forward and back again piece by piece," says Theunis. The biggest danger is that a chunk of concrete that is too large could come loose and cause the excavator to tip over. "But the excavator is secured. With a cable winch that is connected to the inside of the pillars in a metal tube," the professional reassures anyone who may have been worried ...