5th of July 2013, Harbor Gdynia area. Transportation of steel service deck for Hardangerfjord Bridge, Norway. The construction’s dimensions including the truck and trailer reached 25m length, 5.5m width and ultra-height of 6.3m. Based on our information it seemed to have been the highest load transported on the public roads of the Tri-city for the last 13 years.
The record height of the load combined with all the limitations resulting from the road infrastructure along the way required temporary suspension of railway traffic as well as an operation of lifting the power cables. For this purpose two special PKP trains were engaged and they lifted the power cables twice enabling transportation of the oversize load.
For the transportation purposes we used the Volvo FH16 660 KM truck along with a 6-axle semi-type tele-trailer produced to special order for Scandinavian Express by the Nooteboom company. Using a hydraulic suspension with a leveling system for transporting over-size loads with highly located centre of gravity enabled stable transportation of the load. There were 2 drivers and 4 pilots involved in the entire action and they were additionally supported by 2 technical vehicles with teams responsible for disassembling traffic lights.
Transporting such a big construction constituted quite a logistics challenge for our teams of forwarders, drivers and pilots. At the route planning stage it was necessary to obtain several permissions from appropriate public roads and railway infrastructure administrators. The dimensions of the load required numerous suspension of traffic as well as going from Hutnicza street into Estakada Kwiatkowskiego backwards against the traffic and then leading the entire set in a spiral ramp. The margin left on both sides of the truck at the ramp was only 10 to 15 cm. Precise operation was only possible thanks to top skills and qualifications of the drivers and pilots and using wireless control of the trailer’s axles.
The whole operation was carried out as planned and was finished in the morning with an unloading at the ship harbour. From there the construction continued its voyage by sea to its recipient in Norway.
It was not hte first time when a spectacular over-size project carried out by Scandinavian Express raised considerable interest of the media. Watch the relation published by Gazeta Wyborcza and Trojmiasto.pl internet portal.