January 27 - Canadian brewer Molson Coors has taken delivery of six massive German-made brewing tanks at its site near Toronto airport, delivered after a 108 km overland movement from the port of Hamilton undertaking by Cambridge, Ontario-based Challenger
Each 45 m, 43.5 tonne tank can hold the equivilant of around a million bottles of beer, with all six able to hold the equivilant of 5.86 million bottles of beer.
Unable to use the port of Toronto, the tanks were landed at Hamilton. This created a headache for traffic managers faced with organising the temporary removal of 250 traffic lights, manoeuvring around 1,614 service wires, and slowing down night time traffic for four nights for the 40-vehicle, 1 km-long convoy. The convoy included some 20 police vehicles.
The movement of the six tanks cost the brewer some USD24 million.
The tanks were manufactured in Bavaria, Germany from where they despatched in November 2010 by barge along the Main and Rhine rivers to Antwerp prior to being loaded on the 17,451 dwt Federal Pioneer heavy lift ship chartered by Canadian-based shipper Fednav International. The ship arrived safely, and on schedule, at the Federal Marine Terminal in Hamilton almost three weeks later.
The planned road route required some 70 expert surveys prior to transport. The convoy travelled at night, to avoid disrupting some of Canada's busiest roads, using six flatbed trailers. It had to move at such a slow pace that one convoy organiser said a person walking the journey would beat the convoy.
In early January, the four-day journey was completed, though foul winter weather and complications with overhead cables delayed the eventual arrival at the brewery.
