Giants on the move
Giant dimensions
The extension of the terminal in Fredericia included the construction of gas processing plants and liquid propane and butane storage facilities. Liquid butane and propane are stored in eight giant horizontal tanks. These "bullet" tanks are huge! Not only in weight (325.5 tons including transport saddles), but also in dimensions. The tanks, manufactured in Willebroek (Belgium) are 38.54 meters long, 8.43 meters in diameter and have a volume of 1,850 m3.
How do you get these giants from Belgium to Denmark? A great challenge for the transport specialists of Wagenborg Nedlift.
Water transport phase
At the fabrication site in Willebroek, the tanks were loaded onto pontoons via a RORO operation (roll on roll off), destined for Rotterdam. Floating sheerleg "Matador 3" was called in to unload the ‘bullets’ onto the quayside. A heavy lift vessel took the giants on board in Rotterdam, transported them to Denmark and offloaded them in the port of Fredericia.
There, the most challenging part of this unique transport project awaited: 6.5 kilometers of road transport to the brand new terminal.
Downtown Fredericia
The route from the port to the new terminal passed through the idyllic city center of Fredericia. It is quite a challenge to determine and prepare the most suitable route here! Every traffic light, traffic sign, tree, post or other obstacle on the route was mapped and documented by Wagenborg Nedlift specialists in order to (temporarily) remove it.
But how do you take a quarter bend in the middle of the city with such a gigantic load? The transport specialists and engineers of Wagenborg Nedlift puzzled, calculated and discussed until they had found the key solution.
Moment suprême
Finally the time had come: after a long period of engineering, preparation and consultation with everyone involved, the final part of the giants’ journey could commence.
Two "bullets" at a time were transported by SPMT through the city center in 4 consecutive nights. What an impressive sight to see the giants driving slowly and carefully through the narrow streets of Fredericia city!
The fact that all preparation, consultation, calculations and drawings then fall into place as puzzle pieces is of course the icing on the cake for the engineers of Wagenborg Nedlift.
10% slope
Upon arrival at the terminal site, the transport specialists faced a final challenge: a 10% slope leading up to the location of the foundations. With more than 325 tons 'on the back', such a slope percentage is not an easy job. Part of the slope percentage was compensated for by raising the trailer deck of the SPMTs at the backside and and lowering it at the frontside.
In the sand bed
For the very last phase of the project, the foundation setting of the giants, Wagenborg Nedlift mobilized two of her largest crawler cranes to perform a tandem lift. The 400 tons Liebherr LR1400 crawler crane and the 350 tons Demag CC2200 were both equipped with a main boom and superlift counterweight and thus had more than enough capacity to safely place the giants in the sand bed.
The entire project was carried out to the full satisfaction of our client and without delays. That is what the specialists of Wagenborg Nedlift do it for!
Watch the pictures of this giant transport here!
About Hejre
In the central part of the North Sea, near the Danisch/Norwegian border, the Hejre field is located. The field is located at a water depth of approximately 70 meters and covers an area of approximately 30km2. The Hejre field contains two thirds oil and one third gas. The development of this field is the largest oil and gas project in the Danish sector.
The production from the Hejre field is expected to produce about 15 million m3 of oil and about 10 billion m3 of natural gas.