Altius Bolivia has transported a 176-tonne reactor from the port of Zarate, Argentina, to Puerto Jennefer for the Mutun plant project.
The reactor measured 26 m long and had a diameter of 7 m. At the port of Zarate, Altius coordinated a direct transshipment from the ship to a barge – a first for the port.
Subsequently, the reactor was transported over 2,750 km by the Paraná-Paraguay waterway to Puerto Jennefer in Bolivia.
Here, two cranes were deployed by Altius: a Liebherr LG 1750 and Demag CC 2500. They were positioned at the port to unload the reactor, which was then transported to the final destination at the Mutun steel plant using a hydraulic modular trailer.
Last year, Altius was tasked with transporting 10 engines for the project, weighing 115 tonnes each and measured 9.9 m x 4.45 m x 4.45 m.
Also arriving at the port of Zarate onboard a ro-ro vessel, the engines were rolled off the ship using Mafi trailers and were then loaded onto four barges using two cranes. Once lashed and secured, the engines were transported along the Paraná-Paraguay waterway to Puerto Jennefer.
To unload the engines from the barges, Altius utilised 450-tonne and 500-tonne capacity cranes and placed the cargoes onto hydraulic trailers. They were then moved to a storage area and placed on stools ahead of the road transport to the project site.
To facilitate the transport, sections of the roads needed to be levelled as 80 percent of the road was unpaved. Trees also needed pruning along the 35 km route to ensure the engines could arrive at the Mutun plant safely.
