150-ton mill shells from China to SA

A TRULY heavy-lift amongst the abnormal cargoes recently out there on SA roads was a 35 000-freight tonne (F/T) cement plant being shifted from China to the heartland of SA by the project department of Schenker in Durban. “It included two massive mill shells,” said project manager, Jon Naidoo, “each 18-metres long by 5 .5-m in diameter, and weighing in at a whopping 150-tonnes a piece.” With the carrying vessel docking at Richards Bay in the middle of December, embargo time for abnormal loads on the SA road system – the two giant mill shells had to be held in a quayside staging area until the embargo was lifted on January 16. “Our main challenge,” Naidoo added, “was to secure the special trailers needed to handle the direct discharge of these two heavy lifts from the geared vessel at the port of Richards Bay – with December being a month when there is a critical shortage of abnormal transport equipment.” But the projects team solved the problem, acquiring two 12-axle, 96-wheeler trailers – big enough units to move the shells the short distance from shipside to the nearby staging post. But, at the end of the embargo period, the two shells each had to be reloaded onto their own 18-axle, 144 -wheeler trailer with their own hydraulics – the trailer specification required for the long haul to the shells’ new homes at a cement plant being built in Randfontein and for the refurbishment of an existing plant at Lichtenburg. On January 16, the mill shells were hauled out of the port of Richards Bay. Each trailer was drawn by a 650- horsepower (hp) truck-tractor assisted by another 650-hp tractor pushing at the rear – and with each of the units having a combination length of 4 7-m. “Although the abnormal loads required road traffic inspectorate police escorts, route clearance and the lifting of Telkom and Eskom cables,” Naidoo told FTW, “the cargo was safely delivered to its destination – just one of the many special projects we manage each week.”