SPECIALIZED TRANSPORT
INTERNATIONAL AND SPECIALIZED TRANSPORT
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SEPTEMBER 2013
32
and taken via a high load route though
Cheshire into Manchester.
Although the route had been used
before, on this occasion UK authorities
would only permit two vessels to be
moved at a time, and only on a Sunday.
The result of this would be a transport
time of more than a month and expensive
equipment being on hire for several weeks,
both at the docks and on site.
To overcome this issue CPL Transport
Services and project manager Andy Park
stepped in to help the situation. Park said,
“We only had two months to sort out
the transport, which is a lot less than we
normally get for something on this scale.”
Despite the short time scale, CPL
devised a new plan to sail the ships with
the vessels up the canal into the now
disused docks at Salford Quays. Although
the area is undergoing development, and
very little of the original docks remain,
not all the water front had been built on,
meaning the idea was possible.
Following discussions with Peel ports
the go ahead was given to offload the
ships at Salford Quays. To carry out the
unloading of the ships, the dock and
water front had to be prepared, mainly
because it had lain derelict for a number
of years. The new building works in the
area also caused problems, and fenders
had to be placed in the dock to prevent
the ships from coming into contact with
the outlet pipes from the new buildings air
conditioning over flow pipes.
Full strength
Once the dock was prepared, the vessels
were lifted from the ships in tandem using
250 tonne and 200 tonne capacity Liebherr
telescopic boom wheeled mobile cranes.
The vessels were lifted onto multi-axle
Broshuis step frame trailers coupled to a
Volvo FH 6x2 from the CPL fleet, driven
by Dave Davenport, and a Volvo FH 16
from Multiaxles, driven by Don Sheene.
The Liebherr cranes were supplied by John
Sutch Crane Hire from nearby Liverpool.
After the unloading and loading
process, the transport left the docks at
20.00 hours and travelled from Salford
Quays to Moss Side. This happened over
five successive nights. On the first night
the journey took an hour and a half.
Challenges along the route included
tramway catenary wires, bridges, parked
cars and a puncture on one of the tractors,
which happened just outside the brewery
gates. Other than this minor hiccup the
job ran smoothly.
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The convoy makes its way to the Royal Brewery
One of the hardest parts of the route
was a tight left turn at a set of traffic lights.
Which required some shunting to negotiate
One of the first obstacles was this set of traffic
lights that had been partly removed to enable
their passage
Clearing the gate on the way
inside the brewery
