February 2 - Dako Worldwide has coordinated the shipment of three diesel engines from Italy to Panama.
The 300-tonne engines were loaded on Combi Lift's multipurpose vessel Palembang at the port of Trieste using the ship's pair of 450-tonne capacity cranes, before being delivered to the port of Cristobál in Panama.
On arrival in Cristobál, the engines were transhipped onto a flat deck barge, with two engines positioned on elephant feet and beams, and the third unit placed on a 16-axle Goldhofer trailer.
The barge then navigated through the Panama Canal to arrive at a small fishing port on the Pacific side of the country, Puerto Caimito, where Dako had constructed a 100 m long jetty in order to facilitate the discharge operations.
In Puerto Caimito, the units were rolled off the barge using the Goldhofer trailer, before the 17 km transport to the final site could begin.
Dako explained that it used three Mercedes Actros heavy-duty prime movers, as well as two Kenworth prime movers in certain places, in order to reach the site at La Chorrera with the three engines.
En route, the company was required to reinforce three bridges, and made use of a 27 m long overbridge at one point to bypass another bridge. The transport combination also travelled on the federal highway of Panama for a short time, which involved the closure of the highway while the delivery took place.
Due to the cargo and trailer combination measuring 7 m high, Dako explained that it was also required to lift numerous cables on the way.
Dako worked together with Colombia's Transportes Montejo during the domestic delivery of the engines.
