July 4 - A perfect storm of public holidays, unsafe and illegal material handling equipment as well as road works along the projected route greeted global project cargo specialists Tuscor Lloyds when it handled a significant high and heavy load after disc
A boiler, weighing 115 tonnes and measuring 14.25 m (pictured below) had arrived from Hunan, China at the dock in Trieste, Italy prior to onward transport to its final destination 150 km away in Venice. The cargo was for a highly complex and newly constructed Biomass power plant.
Having arrived in the middle of a public holiday, which would delay Customs formalities, it was discovered that the wires provided by the manufacturers for lifting the cargo would be condemned as unsafe and were then destroyed by the Italian authorities. This required lashings to be borrowed for the unloading, which was put under time pressure as the ship was due to leave port and could not be delayed.
After landing the cargo, it was discovered that road works started by the highways authorities a week before required urgent re-planning of the route. The road permits had to be adjusted at short notice. Heavy rainfall during the three-day road journey to Venice also hindered its progress to the power station in Venice.
Despite these headaches, the boiler was finally unloaded in bright sunshine and safely placed on the newly finished steelwork.
