Earlier this year, Höegh Autoliners, in cooperation with Kuehne + Nagel, transported a 43 m breakbulk unit from Turkey to Bahrain.
On behalf of Bechtel, the crane girder, destined for the Alba Potline 6 project, was loaded onto a single roll-trailer in Borusan.
Einar Bassøe, head of global cargo operations at Höegh, explained: “Our policy is to primarily use well known methods in order to keep the risk and complexity to a low level in all aspects of the cargo handling operation. As for this particular breakbulk piece, it could have been loaded with other methods, but by keeping it to the single roll-trailer concept we ensured a low risk operation in front of us.
“By using equipment that is well known in all ports around the world, the cargo operations team could rest assured that the stevedores on each side of the sailing would be comfortable with handling the long piece of cargo.”
In the planning stages of the project, Höegh’s cargo operation team established that if a regular 80 ft (24.4 m) roll-trailer was used, the bogies would be in front of the cargo’s centre of gravity, which would mean that the load would be too heavy on the front wheel. This would result in the cargo tipping over, says Höegh. The solution was to use Höegh’s 80 ft roll-trailer with modified bogies.
Bassøe added: “When the issue with the centre of gravity was solved, we had to ensure safe margins. We calculated the maximum inclination of the stern ramp in both the loading and discharge ports with respect to draft and tidal conditions.
“Based on this, the required height above the ground the girder was calculated carefully in order to safely pass over the inclined ramp.”
The oversized component was subsequently loaded onto Höegh Berlin for onward transportation to Bahrain.
