September 29 - Finnish haulier Vuorsola is currently overseeing the delivery of four 33-tonne tanks from Pietarsaari to a bio-product mill in Aanekoski some 400 km away.
Vuorsola loaded the cargoes at Nordpipe Composite Engineering's (NCE) manufacturing facility on September 24, 2016. Each tank measured 9 m wide and 10 m in height.
The company said that routing for this project was particularly challenging due to the height of the tanks. The route survey - performed months ahead of the transport - revealed that the convoy would not have to pass under any bridges but numerous street signs and other obstacles needed to be lifted and removed.
Many different companies are responsible for the country's electricity cables and phone cables. This made the scheduling of power cuts and cable removal challenging, said Vuorsola.
While planning, Vuorsola discovered that there were few places to park the vehicles en route. With permission from the Finnish road administration, the company was allowed to park the convoy on the road and re-direct other vehicles using the route.
The convoy has proceeded a distance of around 50 km per night and the trucks arrived at the final project site today.
Another Finnish haulier, Silvasti, transported two additional tanks from a different factory in Pietarsaari to the Äänekoski project site.
The convoy was made up of four Vuorsola and two Silvasti trucks, ten escort vehicles, two trucks with Hiab cranes to remove street furniture plus escort vehicles, as well as up to six trucks to arrange for power cuts and cable lifting. A service truck with built-in kitchen and toilet also moved with the convoy.
Vuorsola said this shipment is one of the largest, in terms of the cargo's dimensions and the number of trucks, to move on Finnish roads.
A video of the project can be seen here: https://youtu.be/fxHNv7lQLrQ
