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Global Transport manages a trans-Tasman haul the pessimists said couldn’t be done. BY GAVIN RILEY
But for North Shore-based Global Transport, overseeing the transfer of a key oil-refinery component from New Plymouth to New South Wales had its hazardous moments. Indeed the challenge was such that it took from 2005 until recently to progress from drawing board to carrying out the project. “It was a tricky job. All the pessimists said it couldn’t be done, as they always do. But we just go and do it,” says Global Transport managing director Richard Hyde. The component was a 310-tonne stripper, required at Shell’s refinery near Sydney. Manufactured by Fitzroy Engineering, it was 40 metres long and seven metres in diameter. Fitzroy used Multi-Trans to haul the load to the port of New Plymouth, then Global Transport had the task of managing the transfer of the stripper, and ancillary items, onto a Sea-Tow barge and supervising the trip across the Tasman and up the Parramatta River. The loading at New Plymouth was carried out Mediterranean-style at the end of the berth, instead of the customary side-of-berth loading. The stripper was jacked down onto the barge floor, using the Multi-Trans trailers and a 400-tonne jacking plant, and secured. The barge was then moved alongside the berth and the port-company crane lifted several ancillary items on board, including a 92-tonne, 10 metre x 10 metre x seven metre cyclone structure and a 50-tonne, 30 metre x two metre x two metre riser. The total weight of the cargo was 553 tonnes. A tug towed the barge across the Tasman to Sydney Harbour where it berthed at White Bay. The tug was then replaced by three smaller tugs for the six-hour journey up the Parramatta River to Shell’s facility at Clyde. “It was the biggest barge ever to go up the river,” Hyde says. “The barge was 85 metres long, 24 metres wide and had six-metre high bulwarks. In some places on the river we had only 100mm of water under the bottom of the barge and we actually blocked part of the channel used by ferries, which run between Sydney and Parramatta, because the barge was so wide. But the ferries slowed right down and we managed to pass them.” Road and rail bridges across the river also made the going tricky. “There wasn’t a lot of room between the piles and not much headroom either,” Hyde says. After the barge was safely alongside the riverbank at Clyde and the load was unlashed, Global Transport handed over responsibility to a Shell contractor. The cargo was unloaded using a crane, but Hyde believes a considerable sum of money could have been saved had a Mediterranean-style discharge been used. Though the project had its difficulties, he says Global Transport has managed a number of equally challenging hauls across the Tasman. These include shipping several big heater sections to Geelong six years ago, and barging a coal and ship loader over to Newcastle and berthing it on a riverbank for a Mediterranean discharge. Contractor Vol.32 No.4 May 2008 |
When a company specialises in the management of moving heavy loads between continents, handling a haul across the Tasman might seem to be just another day away from the office.