Full effort, clean execution
An 827 t wash tower and accessories. Asstra Industrial Project Logistics recently picked up seven units for a major oil and gas project in two northern Spanish ports and delivered them to central Poland. Two managers tell the ITJ what the project involved.
The specialist team of Asstra Industrial Project Logistics (Asstra IPL) successfully delivered a heavy consignment from Spain to Poland recently. The cargo was loaded in the northern Spanish ports of Bilbao and Gijón. The heavylift specialists accepted the cargo on FOB terms and loaded it onto a Fairmaster motor vessel.
In the port of Bilbao six consignments were transferred from Mafi roll-trailers to a Fairmaster motor vessel by the ship’s crane. The units involved were three deaerator storage tanks measuring 21.9 x 5.9 x 4.8 m and weighing 61 t, as well as three deaerator heads measuring 4.7 x 2.9 x 2.9 m and weighing approximately 7.4 t.
The ship then transported the cargo west, sailing along the Spanish coast to the port of Gijón. Asstra IPL was proud to point out that this journey of approximately 300 km only took ten hours.
A project for maritime vessels and river barges
After the ship’s arrival in Gijón the Asstra IPL team lifted the largest unit, a wash tower weighing approximately 827 t and measuring 94.4 x 8 x 7.9 m, from the SPMT (self-propelled modular transporter) onto the ocean-going vessel, with the help of two synchronised lifting mechanisms.
The total of seven units on board had a volume of no less than 7,878 m3 and weighed in at an impressive 1,032 t. After securing and fixing the wash tower on board, the ship sailed to the port of Gdansk (Poland), with this transfer taking five days.
Miguel Salas, the head of Asstra IPL in Spain, said that “once the vessel arrived in Poland we transferred all of the consignments from the vessel to three river barges – one for the wash tower and two for the remaining six consignments – using the vessel’s cranes and gear.”
Patrick Richardson, global head of business development at Asstra IPL, elaborated on the order. “The time constraints were a special challenge. Our team had to discharge all of the consignments in a day, in order to avoid a delay for the ship. We commenced operations at 9 a.m. and finished – despite the fact that the weather got worse in the afternoon – the same day at 7.45 p.m.” The freight thus reached its destination in Plock, 300 km upstream on the river Vistula, on time.