Special transport for district heating plant Slider

Special transport for district heating plant

 

December 10, 2021 | Kristina Kast

In cooperation with Felbermayr Austria, Felbermayr's Nuremberg branch handled special transport of two boilers, each 4.4 metres tall and weighing 90 tonnes. The transport route stretched from Gunzenhausen in Middle Franconia through the ports of Roth and Linz to Wels. The transport took place in October of this year.

“Planning and performance of special transport is part of our daily business, but it is always exciting when contracts are handled with short preparation time and varying transport modes together with other Felbermayr entities,” commented Matthias Pichl, project manager and branch manager of Felbermayr Nuremberg.

Transport route for the boilers

Transport from Gunzenhausen in Middle Franconia to the Wels Strom heating plant in Wels led through the ports of Roth and Linz. Transport from Gunzenhausen to Roth was done on an 11-axle semi-low-loading truck with a total 5.35-metre transport height and 150 tons of total weight. A 10-axle semi-low-loader was added for the second boiler. Once arriving at the port of Roth, the loads switched carriers — the two boilers were moved with a 400-ton mobile crane from the low loaders to an inland ship. Transport further on to Linz took about four days on the Danube River. Carriers were switched again at the port of Linz. The move from the inland ship to two 12-axle vessel beds with heavy-duty tractors was handled by a gantry crane.

Then the two boilers were transported to their destination — the district heating plant in Wels. For reasons of space, unloading was done at the final location in front of the heating plant by a Felbermayr mobile crane with a 500-ton maximum load capacity. The boilers were turned 90 degrees and loaded onto an 8-axle self-propelled unit. This allowed the containers to be transported right to the front of the boiler house. A lifting frame did the unloading from the self-propelled unit to the shift track. “That and final placement of the foundation in the boiler house were done by employees of the heavy installation department at the Linz branch,” adds Pichl.

Special transport has its challenges

Originally, the entire transport was supposed to be done on the road. Due to deadline changes and construction, however, a multi-mode solution had to be worked out. “Multi-mode transport — with changes between highway and water transport — is one of the Felbermayr group’s strengths. In this case, it was the key to a job successfully done,” explains Pichl.

Transport with a five-metre height and a 150-ton total weight on the narrow streets of Franconian towns was no everyday feat when it came to organization and driver skills.

No less challenging was setting the foundation: “Precise planning by the Linz branch yielded an optimal solution for unloading and heavy installation, despite the tight spaces at the destination,” Pichl says.