Transport of heavy mechanization needed for realization of a project in Norway

In the second half of the year 2018 we commenced works on a large project for Doosan Lentjes company in Heidlberg Norcem Kjopsvik cement plant.

The object of our activity was an installation of a system for flue gas desulphurization using sea water. The work was highly demanding, because the installation took place during the normal operation of the cement plant. Our company provided above all the assembly of steel structures, pipelines and FRP technology delivered to Doosan company. The total capacity of the installation was approximately 425000 kg.

For the planned installation works it was necessary to transport the heavy mechanization – Grove GMK 5220 mobile crane and MAN truck with a hydraulic arm – to the installation site in Kjopsvik, Norway.

The transportation of such mechanization to a distance more than 3000 km meant to cope with a challenging logistic task. The transport of Grove GMK 5220 mobile crane needed to be planned very carefully considering its weight of approximately 80 tons. The installation site in Kjopsvik is located 700 km beyond the Northern polar circle. Parameters of roads in the northern part of Norway and climatic conditions did not enabled travelling on their own wheels as far as the installation site. The transportation needed to be combined with shipment. 

The mobile crane travelled on its own wheels from Přerov in the Czech Republic to the port of Eemshaven in Netherlands. The following transport by ship had to be agreed well in advance because this was a completely unique transportation (a high weight of the mobile crane), a suitable cargo ship had to be found, however, due to a deeper draught such a ship could not carry out unloading in Kjopsvik but in a farther port. Also a procedure of loading and unloading of the Growe mobile crane by a cargo boom had to be solved in advance.

Our logistic team succeeded in overcoming all obstacles and the mobile crane was transported to Kjopsvik safely, in time and in a good condition.

The MAN truck with a hydraulic arm and a platform trailer travelled all the way to Kjopsvik, approximately 3300 km long, on its own wheels across Germany, Denmark and Sweden. For these mechanisms to be allowed to carry out their work in Norway, all demanding and specific legislative conditions applicable in Norway had to be met (certification, revision inspection, permission, …), which was fulfilled soon enough thanks to high skills of our employees.

The mobile crane and the truck with a hydraulic arm worked in the Kjopsvik site for four months. In December 2018 they were transported back to our mother company in Přerov, at first by a ship to the port of Rotterdam in Netherlands, where we took them over after a week-long transport by ship and returned them back to Přerov on their own wheels. Regarding the actual climatic conditions beyond the polar circle the truck could not use the same route anymore as when travelling over there.

This event shows how demanding and important is to manage all the works related to an order, which must be planned and performed even several months before and are often performed also after the works on the project had finished. These works can be managed only by a highly professional team of skilled and experienced experts from areas of logistics, safety at work, legislation and, of course, our specialization – installations of large investment complexes.