Second Time’s a Charm

By Malcolm Ramsay

A 2022 repeat of an Australian power plant move first undertaken in 1999 exposed new infrastructure challenges for DB Schenker and AAL Shipping. From Issue 6 of Breakbulk Magazine, we speak to executives from both companies to find out how the out-of-gauge cargo was safely delivered to its final destination.


Sending replacement parts to existing sites is often deemed a simpler endeavor than launching greenfield projects. However, as heavy-lift specialist AAL Shipping (AAL) and global logistics firm DB Schenker discovered in a recent Australian undertaking, this assumption doesn’t always hold true. The project involved transport of a massive transformer and generator as well as 600 cubic meters of accompanying accessories and required detailed planning from the outset.

Working on behalf of Japanese multinational Toshiba, DB Schenker was contracted to move a range of heavy-lift cargo components for a power plant in central Queensland, Australia that was initially built in 1999.

Fast forward 22 years and a new generator and transformer were required urgently as part of a US$200 million project to fix damaged turbines and return one of Queensland’s newest and most vital coal-fired power plants to full capacity, after several power outages from the NSW border to the north of Cairns.

The logistics of what should have been a fairly simple and standard heavy-lift shipping and specialized road transport delivery scope became an increasingly difficult transport engineering “Pandora’s box,” Bernd Schuler, head of ocean chartering for Asia Pacific at DB Schenker, told Breakbulk. “The reality as it turned out was vastly different.”

In 1999, the original power plant components had arrived at Auckland Point 4 wharf in Gladstone and were then lifted directly into a girder beam trailer before being driven 315 kilometers to site. While the same trailer was still available, and some of the same people were still employed at the company that did the original move, ageing public road infrastructure meant the trailer axle weights used in 1999 now exceeded the current weight ratings of several bridges enroute from Gladstone Port to the site.

“Wherever our project team turned for transport routes from the various Australian east coast ports between Brisbane and Mackay, it ended at a dead-end with no possibility to cross a certain bridge enroute due to the bridge trailer axle weight limitation,” Schuler said.


Selecting a Carrier

Having studied the various routes in detail, and working closely with Gladstone Port, DB Schenker formulated a plan to circumvent the first few bridges, but this required transshipping the largest heavy-lift units - a generator and transformer each weighing over 250 tonnes. To achieve this, the firm brought in the services of project heavy-lift specialist AAL to oversee transfer from the main vessel berth to a tug and barge as well as manage delivery of some of the cargo from its origin in China to final destination in Australia.

“AAL was selected for the project due to its long-standing relationship with DB Schenker, history of strong performance on Toshiba cargoes, and the reliability of AAL’s monthly Asia- East Coast Australia Liner Service, on which this latest cargo was shipped,” Chris Yabsley, chartering manager at AAL Australia, said.

Among the first items to arrive at Gladstone was the giant generator unit, which was delivered to Gladstone in Sept. 2022. This arrived aboard a SAL heavy-lift vessel from Yokohama, Japan, and had to be stored temporarily in Gladstone Port until November as it awaited the arrival of the transformer and ancillary cargo.

The temporary storage of the generator in Gladstone was required due to a shortage of suitable sized landing crafts or barges on the east coast of Australia until the November window when the barge Cronos from Heron Construction New Zealand became available as it sailed to Australian waters for a five-year survey inspection before returning to its New Zealand home base.

In Shanghai, the transformer was loaded aboard AAL’s 31,000 deadweight mega-size A-Class heavy-lift MPV AAL Singapore in November and was initially bound direct for Australia, but logistics considerations resulted in a rerouting.

“Whilst loading the transformer in China and before her sailing to Gladstone, our client requested if the AAL Singapore could deviate to Yokohama in Japan and load other critical accessories for the same project, which we were happy to do,” Yabsley said.

Having made the detour to Yokohama, the AAL Singapore finally arrived in Gladstone in mid-November and discharge operations commenced.

“AAL was then further engaged to harness our vessel’s heavy-lift cranes and transfer the large 276-tonne generator stator from wharf laydown to a waiting barge, which we again executed seamlessly,” Yabsley said.

With all the auxiliary cargo from Shanghai and Yokohama offloaded from the AAL Singapore, the stored generator was temporarily re-loaded onto the AAL Singapore, before transshipping to the barge deck. As the transformer and gen stator both had to be perfectly positioned by AAL’s cranes to avoid unbalance, the discharge could also only take place during daylight hours.

The tug and barge then sailed 9 kilometers upstream from Gladstone harbor to a shallow draft berth, allowing roll off the barge via self-propelled modular transporters, considering the tidal windows and minimum underwater clearance necessary.


Land Move Tests Mettle

Having transported these components 7,000 kilometers from Yokohama and 7,335 kilometers from Shanghai without issue, some of the greatest challenges were still to come as the team faced numerous obstacles in the remaining 302-kilometer journey overland to the power plant. For this section a set of Cometto platform trailers were utilized in 2x14 configuration.

“The Cometto trailer was chosen due to its wider wheelbase, allowing its wheels to travel closer to the bridge girders than a traditional Goldhofer trailer at a maximum width of 3.6 meters,” Schuler explained, adding that axle loadings were 19.3 tonnes per axle with a total width of 4.3 meters.

Unfortunately, the load carrying capacity of three out of fifty-eight bridges and culverts along the route had been derated and required an axle rating as low as possible. After much calculation and pre-planning, the team were able to achieve a final solution with 16.2 tonnes per axle and just 2.1 tonnes loading per tire.

“To achieve 16.2 tonnes per axle loading, a customized bridge crossing procedure had to be developed which included an additional 6-axle Goldhofer THP being positioned directly under the load for vulnerable bridges at Raglan Creek, Neerkol Creek 1 and Neerkol Creek 2,” Schuler explained.

As part of this solution, the 6-axle Goldhofer THP had to be manually steered as it crossed the bridges, due to strict lane control requirements resulting from degradation of the supports under the bridge beams.

To meet these tight lane control requirements, the team had to keep the trailer within 150 millimeters of the bridge center line. Lines were painted on the three vulnerable bridges so that the trailer operators could steer the prime movers, 14 axle trailers and the 6 axle THP all within the 300-millimeter window of the center line.

“Maintaining the center line of the entire long combination within the 300-millimeter window proved extremely challenging as all bridge crossings were done in the night with limited visibility and full road closures,” Schuler said. “Bridge strengthening works for one of the bridges couldn’t be completed for the first planned transport schedule, and the bypass route also had to be planned with civil and roadworks.”


Broad Partnerships

DB Schenker worked closely with the power station owners, heavy haulage specialist Lampson Australia for specialized transport scope and also with the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), Rockhampton Regional Council and Gladstone Regional Council to prepare the route.

“The generator stator was transported in a 116-meter-long convoy, consisting of four prime movers and a beam set carrying the load with its weight distributed across two trailers,” a spokesperson for the power station owner said. “Like the transformer, the generator stator followed a route that had been carefully planned and approved by TMR to ensure the safety of road users and support the logistics of transporting such a large load."

In total, the transformer transport, including four prime movers, had a total weight of 622 tonnes, and measured 5.8 meters in height and 4.45 meters in width. The generator transport combination, in contrast, weighed 640 tonnes, measured 5.75 meters in height and 6.30 meters in width.

On top of these challenges, 16 kilometers of the route was over partially unsealed bypass roads which required major civil and roadworks for culvert and floodway crossings. This included the cut back of both the entry and exit shoulders of one section of road as well as infill and raising of a road surface by 2.5 meters to avoid a 250-meter segment of unpassable gully with floodway section.

“The first night transport for the transformer involved one bridge crossing using the special procedure with the Goldhofer THP and during the second night the detour route was successfully defeated. The cargo finally reached the power station safely on the fourth night thanks to a great team effort by all involved,” Schuler said.

Having delivered the transformer, a second transport with the generator began and this time the journey was shortened to three nights on the road without the bridge detour route, allowing the final component to arrive safely in January 2023.

Schuler concluded: “The entire supply chain for a project like this is only as strong as the weakest link in the entire chain, consisting of many DB Schenker offices, suppliers and partners in different countries and modes of transports which needed to be orchestrated. The more challenges we face, the more interesting it gets for us. A difficult but ultimately rewarding project requiring out of the box thinking with engineered solutions, executed with our premium partners in +50,000 manhours incident- and injury-free to the full satisfaction of all stakeholders.”

Yabsley agreed on the vital part that collaboration played throughout, concluding: “The biggest challenges we faced were the complex heavy-lift operations themselves, shore-ship transfers, and making all critical delivery dates to meet barge, tide, and local authority deadlines. This was only possible with strong communication, flexibility, and trust between supply chain stakeholders.”


DB Schenker and AAL Shipping will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Middle East 2024, taking place on 12-13 February at the Dubai World Trade Center in the UAE.