Sweet success for project specialist

For Lovemore Bros, transporting, rigging and installing a power generation plant in Swaziland was all in a day’s work. The recent transportation and installation of a condenser, turbine and generator to provide the power requirements for the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC) mill at Simunye in the country’s north-eastern lowveld involved, in phase one, loading the 43-ton condenser directly onto a Lovemore 60-ton lowbed from the vessel at Durban harbour. It was then transported along the 560-km route to the mill where it was rigged into position onto plinths 3.5 metres above ground level, using a 200-ton LPG-powered mobile gantry. Phase two required loading the 65-ton generator onto Lovemore’s 100-ton lowbed at Durban harbour while the turbine and its baseplate weighing 49 tons was offloaded onto a 60-ton lowbed and ferried to Simunye, Hugh de Borchgrave, who heads the mechanical and projects division at Lovemore Bros, told FTW. “We believe that the project was successful mainly due to the cooperation and contributions of all parties concerned and the ‘homework’ we all put in,” said De Borchgrave. “This included creating a three-dimensional computerised AutoCAD rigging study in advance, selecting the correct lowbeds for both transport and site access, and the use of sound rigging practices and equipment,” he said.