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When history repeats itself, sister companies discover just how much their heavy-haulage capability has expanded in the past 12 years. BY PETER DANILO and GAVIN RILEY
Back in 1995 Machinery Movers from Manukau City was contracted to install all the heavy equipment at NZ Steel’s Glenbrook-site power station, which is now owned and operated by Alinta ENZ. One of the units was a condenser weighing 115 tonnes. The condenser had to be manually lifted with mechanical jacks and hundreds of hardwood blocks. The lifting included using the hydraulics from the trailer that delivered the condenser as a jacking platform until its maximum height was reached, then taking over with mechanical jacks and blocks. The process took almost an entire week. Fast forward to the present. Towards the end of last year, Warwick Bell from Tranzcarr Heavy Haulage, a sister company to Machinery Movers, was contacted by Alinta to provide a door-to-door transportation of a new replacement condenser unit from New York to Glenbrook. The scope of the work included extracting the old condenser and installing the similar-sized new one. Differences between the 1995 project and this one highlight the growth and development of Machinery Movers and Tranzcarr Heavy Haulage. The recent contract demanded the ability to provide a complete turnkey solution covering every aspect of the project from a full site-safety plan compliant with all health and safety requirements of both Alinta and NZ Steel to engineering schematics – providing international shipping, and carrying out heavy haulage and installation work using the latest technology. “It certainly shows that Machinery Movers and Tranzcarr Heavy Haulage have come of age,” Bell says. Having provided a solution to the client for a complete project, Tranzcarr Heavy Haulage was given the go-ahead to co-ordinate the inland haulage of the condenser in the United States, ship it to New Zealand and arrange for transport and installation on site. The condenser, measuring 13 metres long at four metres diameter and weighing 115 tonnes, was railed from Bativa, New York, to Philadelphia then shipped to the Port of Auckland where it was loaded onto a 12-axle Goldhofer platform trailer. Between about 3am and 7am the trailer was hauled some 70 kilometres to Glenbrook steel mill where the load was transferred to a 10-axle Cometto platform trailer to allow for better manoeuvrability in an extremely confined turning radius when positioning the condenser for installation. While Tranzcarr was handling the heavy haulage, Machinery Movers’ heavy-installation crew, led by special projects manager Don Mann, positioned all eight legs of the company’s 200 and 400-tonne mobile hydraulic lift and lock gantry systems around the old condenser in preparation for the exchange. The gantry system has revolutionised this kind of heavy installation work, cutting the operational time considerably while significantly improving safety. Unlike the 1995 project, where it took a full week to lift the old condenser, Alinta required the old condenser removed and the new one installed within 48 hours during a shutdown of the power station. To enable the task to proceed continuously and be completed on time, the teams from Tranzcarr and Machinery Movers were divided into two crews working day and night shifts. The old condenser was hydraulically jacked to clear the mounts, with the rear of the condenser supported by skates and the front end lifted with slings attached to one of the gantry systems. The gantry legs were self-propelled along specially designed rails, pulling the condenser along beams until the rear was resting on the front plinth. The front of the condenser was supported while the gantry was detached and moved back to pick up the rear and a second set of legs was attached to the front, creating enough length to pull the condenser out of the station. This entire operation was completed at a height of over five metres. In order to achieve the efficiency required to meet the demanding time constraints, a second 10-axle Cometto platform trailer was supplied to take the old condenser from the gantry to a storage area on site, while the new condenser remained in position on the first platform trailer so it could be backed under the gantry as soon as the old condenser was hauled out. This resulted in a very smooth and fast changeover. At this point the new condenser was positioned under the gantry system, then lifted and placed in the power station hall using the same method in reverse as that used to extract the old unit. Commenting on his team’s ability to successfully complete a challenging project, Don Mann says Machinery Movers and Tranzcarr Heavy Haulage have consistently invested in new technology over the years while retaining experienced and dedicated staff, resulting in a reputation as the best in the business. Fellow director Dave Carr adds: “Like all of the special projects that we undertake, this was a success due to a great team effort, from the planning stages in the office through to the guys that did the work all hours of the night in the field.” Contractor Vol.31 No.11 December 07 - January 2008 |
Two projects carried out a dozen years apart on the same site have brought home to one of New Zealand’s leading heavy-haulage groups how far it has progressed in that time.