Transportes Muciño used its Goldhofer Faktor 5 girder bridge, along with an ADDrive heavy-duty drive unit, to deliver 13 gas turbines in Mexico.
The Mexican heavy haulage specialist used the equipment to transport the turbines approximately 1,200 km through Mexico. The turbines, which weighed between 186-289 tons (168-262 tonnes) each, were used in the construction of three separate power plants. Among them was the new El Carmen combined cycle power plant in Nuevo Leon.
Transportes Muciño said that challenges on the route included bridges, a steep climb into the mountains of Ciudad Victoria and a sharp descent to Saltillo. The ADDrive power unit enabled the combination to overcome gradients of 10 percent.
“With the help of the ADDrive we were able to make the overall vehicle configuration as compact as possible and to carry out the entire project in the shortest possible time,” said Raul Cuevas, commercial director at Transportes Muciño.
The ADDrive unit was synchronised with the tractor units using Bluetooth to ensure travel speeds of up to 15 km/h. The additional drive unit also made it possible to cross bridges without using tractors, which reduced the overall weight of the configuration.
The truck and trailer combination – which measured 95 m-long, 6.84 m-wide and around 5.3 m in height – reached the three power plants without any notable problems. Upon arrive at each site, the tractors were removed and traction was provided by the ADDrive unit. “That gave us the manoeuvrability we needed for the extra-long rig and enabled us to achieve precise positioning,” Cuevas added.
