High and heavy project cargo moves

News 26 Aug 2017 by WCN Editorial

Project Cargo Network (PCN) has reported a couple of notable project moves by members

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In one, C H Robinson Project Logistics and fellow PCN member, Europe Cargo, based in Antwerp, teamed up to handle the door-to-door transportation of a gearbox from Augsburg in Germany) to Joffre in Alberta, Canada.

The gearbox weighed over 100t and measured 9.58 x 4.50 x 3.35m. The sensitivity of the gearbox required special handling and planning, especially for the inland transportation from Germany to the Port of Antwerp. As the centre of gravity was off-centre, it required special lifting and tie-down instructions.

The North American leg of the journey called for route surveys and permit processing. The gearbox was transported by land via a hydraulic trailer, which was configured in such a way as to distribute the weight over all the axles. By capitalising on the free storage, the team delayed transport long enough to avoid the road ban season while the gearbox was in transit in Canada.

Even with all the curfews and summer construction in North America, the gearbox was safely delivered to site without issue, says PCN.

In another, Russian member Glogos recently delivered the second batch of wind turbines from Shanghai to the river port of Ulyanovsk, via Constanta and the Black Sea, Volga-Don and Volga, for power company Fortum. The total cargo volume amounted to 40,000 ft3 with the length of each blade at 54m and the height of each base at 4.85m.

Glogos handled the ocean freight shipping with transhipment to river barges in the port of Constanta. The whole project was performed in two batches. In autumn 2016, the towers of wind turbines were transported and the propellers were delivered during this August.

For the river-sea transportation, a special reinforcement deck was built and the Glogos team organised the barge shipment of the blades with a three-tiered loading system, the modelling and planning of which was carried out in advance and tested in Shanghai.

Project Manager, Maxim Yakovlev said: "This arrangement allowed us to place the entire cargo on only two barges and save the customer's resources."