43
OCTOBER 2014
ACT
TRANSPORT
SITEREPORT
For the two largest vessels, Deep South
utilized a Kenworth push and a pull truck to
negotiate the incline on the Fred Hartman
Bridge, which spans 2.6miles across the
Houston Ship Channel.
trailer set at 18-feetwide forboth the front
and rear.”
Loaded and secured
Once the vessel was loaded and secured,
Deep South’s crews set out to get it to
theproject site. The transport tookplace
duringdaylight hours andwas completed
inoneday. The route chosenwas a bit
out of theway, along the south side of
Houston along the SamHoustonBeltway
to StateHighway 225 SE.
“Due tooverhead clearance issues, the
convoyhad toheadSouthonSH146
frontage road,make aU-turnunderneath
SH146, thenheadNorthonSH146,” said
Johnson. “Shortly afterwemergedonto
SH146, we reached theFredHartman
Bridge. The overall spanof the bridge is
over twomileswith a fairly steep incline.”
Toovercome the steep grade of the
bridge, an additional truckwas used to
pushwhile the other pulled.
“Oncewe crossed the bridge, the route
was prettymuch a straight shot to the
plant inMont Belvieu,” Johnson said.
“Overall transport dimensionswere
238-feet, 9-inches in length, 18-feet
wide, 21-feet, 4-inches high andwith
a combined grossweight of 732,020
pounds.”
The same route andprocesswas
required for the thirdpressure vessel.
“The keydifferencewas the length,”
explained Johnson. “Making theU-turn
at SH146proveddifficult. The overall
transport lengthwas nearly 40 feet longer
than the second vessel. It took constant
vigilance throughout thedurationof the
turn to avoid the bridge supports and
surrounding structures.”
Once the turnwas executed, the rest of
thehaulingwas smooth sailing.Overall
transport dimensionswere 274-feet,
4-inches long, 18-feetwide, 20-feet
10-inches high andwith a gross transport
weight of 781,720pounds.
The last vessel was the largest, and
Johnson said this oneproved tobe
themost complicatedof the four. The
manufacturer of this vessel is located
nearGreensBayou inHouston.Due to
the enormous size,DeepSouth’s team
realized that transporting it entirelyover
the roadwouldbe too costly.
“Since the vesselmanufacturer had a
dockwithwater access and therewas a
place to receive the vessel within6miles
of theplant, we opted tobarge the vessel,”
Johnson said. “Once the vesselwas loaded
ontoour trailer and secured, we rolled
onto a 250-foot by 54-foot deckbarge and
seafastened it.
Moving by night
It tookoneday for thebarge toget to the
roll-off site inBaytown, TX.
“After its arrival,weoffloaded the vessel,
cleanedoff thebarge, andprepared for the
two-night transport,” Johnson said.
With the amount of coordination
required, aswell as the sizeof this vessel,
Johnson saidhis team thought itwas
prudent tomove at night.
“Theobstacles on the first night
consistedof a railroad crossing arm that
needed tobe lifted, some tight turns and a
median crossingonSH99,”he said.
The secondnight proved tobe themost
difficult.
“To start thenight,wehad to cross
Interstate 10,”he said. “Inorder todo
so, the concretebarricade in the center
of the roadneeded tobe removed. This
means tacticallydiverting trafficoff of the
interstateonto the feeder road to allow a
crane to enter and lift thebarrier out of
theway.Once thebarrierwas removed,
the convoy could cross the interstate and
thebarricadewas put back inplace.Once
itwas secured and the cranehadbeen
released, trafficwas divertedbackonto
the interstate.”
The remainder of thenight consisted
of liftingpower lines and traffic signals
out of theway as the convoy slowly and
carefully continuedon its path to the
plant.
Theoverall dimensions of the fourth
pressure vesselwas a transport length
of 168-feet, 8-inches, transportwidthof
20-feet, 9-inches and a transport height of
26-feet, 1 inch. The transportweightwas
1,493,880pounds.
Once all the vessels hadbeen staged and
dressedout,DeepSouthwas then tasked
with tailing the vessels up and setting
themonto their respective foundations.
Themain crane for the liftingwasDeep
South’s 1,800-ton capacityVersacrane
TC-28000. The vesselswere tailedwith
aTerexDemagCC-2800-1, a660-ton
capacity crawler crane.
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Once all the vessels had been staged and dressed out, Deep South performed the second scope
of work, whichwas to tail the vessels up and set them onto their respective foundations.
