South African transport engineering and heavy lift service provider Vanguard is transporting 82.5 m-long wind turbine blades some 500 km to Noupoort, a small town in the Karoo region.
The blades require a transport rig measuring 95 m. “With 78 sets arriving at Coega port and each set containing three blades, a nacelle, a generator, a hub and containers, over 550 individual pieces of cargo are required to be transported 500 km to Noupoort,” explained Joost Heystek, project manager at Vanguard.
The project has been months in the planning and the design of the port layout has been critical. Due to the number of components arriving at the port, including 234 of the longest blades to be offloaded in South Africa, it is essential that the cargo is stored in a way that allows for access and manoeuvrability at all times. This will enable the transport operation of two convoys per week, for the next 12 months, to run smoothly, said Vanguard.
Vanguard has completed extensive route surveys and swept path analysis on the 500 km route, identifying pinch points, street furniture and telecom lines that need to be navigated. There are bridges along the route that need to be crossed with utmost precision and several new roads constructed to allow passage of the convoy.
