SPECIALISED TRANSPORT Ӏ SECTOR REPORT
j bends and, at the approach
to the construction site itself, had to negotiate steep gradients and unpaved roads. The particular challenge of this task was the length of the load. The loaded tractor-trailer combination was 96 metres long and weighed around 65 tonnes – the load itself was around 30 tonnes. Luxembourg-based company
Transpalux, which belongs to the P. Adams Group, performed the task. “Although the bends were widened, our operators still had to constantly adjust the steering,” reports Stephan Adams, managing director of the group. The Scheuerle RBTS consists of a two-axle jeep dolly with a
Goldhofer moves turbines and blades in Ecuador
The largest wind farm in Ecuador is being built in Loja Province. Called Minas de Huascachaca it comprises 14 wind turbines with a total capacity of 50 MW, which will supply 90,000 households with electricity. The contract to transport the turbines and blades was awarded to the Colombian special transport and lifting company Transportes Montejo. Montejo’s fl eet includes a Goldhofer FTV 550 blade lifter, which has a load moment of 550 mt.
That makes it able to transport the latest generation of wind turbine blades that are not only long and heavy but wide as well: they have a diameter of 3.4 m at the root. The great advantage of FTV 550 blade lifter is that the blades can be freely rotated around their own axis in order to keep them out of the wind during transport. The blades can also be angled as required up to a maximum angle of 60° to pass over or under obstacles. This is the key to savings as it minimises the need to remove or make changes to the roadside infrastructure. With the FTV 550 mounted on a Goldhofer THP/SL heavy-duty module, Transportes Montejo was able to transport the 73 m long blades for a 4 MW Dongfang wind turbine up the winding road to the construction site on a plateau in the Andes. In such mountainous terrain, the Goldhofer FTV blade lifter gave a convincing demonstration of its capabilities; the Transportes Montejo crew raised and turned the blades to avoid contact with the steep slopes as the combination made its way up to the job site.
free-turning device and a four-axle trailing unit.
It is also possible to mount the
free-turning device directly on the truck tractor, but this means that a four-axle or five-axle semi-trailer tractor is required due to the high fifth-wheel load; Transpalux uses three-axle vehicles. “For blade lengths of more than
75 metres over long routes, there is no alternative to a trailer unit combination,” said Adams. The deployment marked a first for the RBTS at P. Adams. “Prior to this transport assignment, our drivers had only worked with telescopic semi-trailers and, until now, we had only had the opportunity to try out the RBTS in the form of a test load. In the end this wasn’t a problem for our drivers. They quickly became familiar with the equipment functions. It all worked out extremely well.” The comparatively simple handling of the RBTS helped as well: “Our drivers mastered it in a very short time.” One reason for choosing Tii
Scheurle equipment was, he says, their understanding of the special requirements involved.
40 CRANES TODAY
Also new at
Bauma, the FTV850 from Goldhofer
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