Copenhagen Metro in Denmark opened its most recent extension during September after several years of construction works in and under the city centre.
DSV transported 385,000 tonnes of concrete components through the Copenhagen streets between 2012 and 2017. The company said that its innovative logistics solution spared the city half the amount of traffic and CO2 emissions compared to the original plans.
Construction of the 15.5 km-long “Cityring” required 22,000 concrete rings to form the tunnels. Each concrete ring came in six parts with a combined weight of 17.5 tonnes. The concrete parts were transported on chartered ro-ro vessels from Sassnitz in Germany to the port of Copenhagen over 135 voyages.
From the port, the cargoes were transported by road to three different destinations in the inner city.
The original plan was to transport six parts for one concrete ring on a truck at a time. However, the decision to use new, bespoke four-axle axle flatbed trailers as opposed to traditional three-axle trailers, meant it was possible to load two entire concrete rings on each truck.
DSV also managed to reduce the size of the padding layers between the six pieces of concrete stacked on the trailers, which lowered the total height of the truckload by 30 cm. This allowed for more flexibility during the route planning process, as it allowed DSV to pass under a series of bridges that would have otherwise been impassable.
