Trimodal transport for Polish power station
May 11, 2016 | Markus Lackner
The Polish economy is growing considerably faster than that of most EU countries. This also has an impact on the current needs of the industry. In turn this necessitates the construction of new power plants. One of which, about 100 kilometres northwest of the Polish capital Warsaw, is scheduled to go online by the end of 2017. More specifically, in the city of Plock, which has 122,000 inhabitants.
“In late summer 2015, we received the contract and started with the detailed planning immediately”, says Boris Albl of the Felbermayr branch in Nuremberg. Therefore, this left only a few months’ time before the work began in February. “For a multimodal project with unit weights of up to 500 tons, that’s not that much time”, remarks Albl and refers to the effective cooperation on the project with the participating subsidiary, Best Logistics in Szczecin, Haeger and Schmidt and HSW Logistics in Duisburg and the Felbermayr Krefeld site. Last but not least, the managing director of Felbermayr Transport and Lifting Technology Peter Stöttinger also provided valuable support in terms of project planning.
5000 kilometres through Europe
From the five different locations, the components were transported a total of approximately 5000 kilometres to the power plant construction site in Plock. “The K-turbine, generator and turbine rotor and two housing parts came from the Siemens factory in Mülheim an der Ruhr in North Rhine-Westphalia”, explains Albl. Changes had to be made to the plan at the very beginning of the project due to the flooding there. With a total weight of around 900 tons, the components could not be put on a coaster at Mülheim as planned, but first had to be transported by barge to Nordenham at the mouth of the Weser river to the North Sea. “Due to the flooding on the Ruhr we would have been too high with the cargo on the coaster and would not have made it under some of the bridges” remarks Albl. Once there, the original plan of transferring to the coaster was completed within a day. Furthermore, the gas turbine temporarily stored in Nordenham was added along with the exhaust diffuser which started out at the Siemens plant in Berlin. This was necessary to transport the components past the Mecklenburg and Pomeranian Bay via the Kiel Canal to the next reloading point, some 1500 kilometres away. “Which would have been Gdynia”, says Albl. Due to the delays, however, the shipyard crane there was no longer available. Which is why the voyage continued directly to Gdańsk, on the Vistula estuary. There was no suitable cargo handling equipment available to load the heavyweight high-tech components. Therefore, a 600-ton floating crane from Bremerhaven was ordered. In this way, the components could still be transshipped onto waiting pontoons on schedule.
The following approximate 350 kilometres to the nearest reloading station were covered on the Vistula. “The Vistula is an un-impounded stream with a very low water level all year round,” said Albl, explaining the core problem. Therefore, heavy-duty, shallow-draught pontoons specially modified by Best Logistics were used. Therefore, a maximum draught of only 1.4 metres at a charge weight of 500 tons each was achieved, Albl notes, he further relates that a similar transport operation had taken place on the Vistula a year earlier with a draught of 1.8 metres, which became stuck for several months. In the client’s interests, a delay of this kind had to be avoided. Within a week, the two barges and pontoons had arrived at berth in Plock as quickly as possible.
Rolling into obstacles
Despite the difficulties on the water, not all the hurdles had yet been overcome. Even the unloading platform was causing problems due to permanent undercutting by the river, which meant it did not meet the static requirements. The solution was reached by means of four pile systems that reach 10 metres underground respectively and two concrete foundations, to the left and right of the ramp. On this a rail mounted lifting frame was positioned. “This enabled us to safely transfer the two 500-ton components after being transported from the ship by hydraulic displacement tracks. Subsequently, the gas turbine and generator were transshipped onto a Krefeld 1000-ton self-propelled modular transporter by a lifting frame“, Albl explains the complex process in preparation for the onward journey by road. To safely pass a structurally compromised bridge, the 500-ton generator and the gas turbine were transported on a 18-axle self-propelled transporter in a “4-file configuration”. In this manner, the weight was distributed over a total of 144 road-friendly wheels, making it possible to pass even a structurally compromised bridge. For the 30-metre long vehicle the three consecutive roundabouts, however, were a major obstacle. Therefore, the SPMT (self-propelled modular transporter) was stripped down to ten axle lines after the bridge. However, a few hundred metres before the parking area, the men with sky-blue helmets once again faced another serious challenge. A low-lying pipe bridge was in the way of the entire 7-metre high load. However, it was possible to transport the cargo under the pipe bridge using the rail mounted lifting frame once more. The transport team had more favourable conditions at another pipe bridge. “We were able to continue without employing extensive technical measures, the SPMT was hydraulically lowered to its lowest possible ride height of 1.2 metres”, beams Albl. The remaining components were reloaded by means of two 500-ton mobile cranes. The SPMT was reduced to 8 axle lines; sufficient to deal with the maximal 133-ton weights. The temporarily stored components will be moved into the machine building from mid-May.
Road and rail for the final transport
Capacitor parts weighing in at a total of 280 tons were transported approximately 300 kilometres by road. The parts originated in the city of Opole, which lies southwest of Plock. Weighing a maximum of about 50 tons and measuring seven meters in width, these shipments were delivered using conventional semi low-loaders. In mid-June the 200-ton shipment of housing parts for the steam turbine, also originating in Opole, will follow.
In the next phase, a transformer weighing 277 tons and two phase shifters each weighing 110 tons will be delivered by Felbermayr department responsible for international low-loader rail transportation. The approximately 1000-kilometre journeys start out at Siemens units in Weiz and Linz in Austria. When the foundations of these components are in place in October, the contract for Felbermayr is completed. Which spells the end of an extraordinary project for Albl. “The success of such a project is grounded in teamwork”, says the 43-year old project and branch manager of the Nuremberg site. A fitting statement from the executive site manager for the client, Siemens, following the arrival of the heavy cargo: “What a week and a special day for Plock! All the heavy goods arrived safely at the job site. Special thanks to the Siemens Transportation Team and Felbermayr. Such impressive work.“
