South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries has purchased five ShipyardTransporters from TII Scheuerle. German heavy lift specialist Spedition Kübler was on hand to transport the first two vehicles from the plant in Pfedelbach to the Heilbronn inland port facility.
The 25 m long, 1.9 m high and 151-tonne loads were manoeuvred through narrow streets and along country roads to reach Heilbronn for onward delivery. In one challenging section of the route, the 8 m-wide combinations navigated their way through the town of Bitzfeld, where the width between the houses is just 8.22 m.
Traffic signs and lights had to be temporarily removed while sections of a construction site were also moved out of the way for the convoy. Several times, the transporters had to use the lane of oncoming traffic or take the route through the middle of a specially covered roundabout. Metal drive-over sheets and curbstone wedges protected green areas and curbs respectively.
The transporters were hauled using Scheuerle InterCombi axle lines along with four-axle tractor units.
With a maximum steering angle of 60 degrees, the InterCombi platform vehicles are manoeuvrable enough to transport the wide loads through tight bends as well as negotiating roundabouts and travelling through restricted spaces in town and village centres along the route.
From Heilbronn, the ShipyardTransporters were loaded onto a barge and transported to the port of Antwerp, where they were transhipped onto a seagoing vessel. Each transporter is capable of handling ship sections and other heavy shipbuilding components up to 800 tonnes. Up to six of the vehicles can be coupled together, with a payload of up to 5,000 tonnes.
