THIS IS HOW THE PATH IS BUILT - Odebrecht Informa

U
Mauro Rehm: “The
biggest lessons have
come from the project
management teams,
especially through our
operations in Angola”
Winter in the Dutch city of Rotterdam
is the coldest in Europe.
The thermometer can
plummet to 14 o C below zero.
In one of the continent’s busiest
seaports, all kinds of products are shipped with
a thin coat of ice. Heavy snow falls steadily, making
the longshoremen’s work even harder. Among the
numerous standardized containers on the docks, a
giant dredger stands out. It is 65 m long, and has
to be loaded onto a ship with cranes in the hyperborean
cold.
However, the ice crystals covering the Dutch
dredge will soon melt and evaporate. Its destination
is the heart of the tropics in the Brazilian Amazon,
where it is almost 40 o C in the shade. After a
12-day voyage across the Atlantic, the dredger’s
first stop is the bustling Port of Belém. From there
it will be taken by river to Porto Velho. The reason
for this operation is to contribute to the execution of
the construction team’s plans – generating power
at the Santo Antônio plant ahead of schedule.
“This case [which occurred in 2010] required
special solutions so we could accomplish everything
on time and achieve our ultimate goal, which
was to meet the project’s needs,” explains Christina
Neuffer, the Olex officer Responsible for Global
Sourcing, Imports to Brazil and International
Transportation.
At first glance, it seems very hard to transport a
65-m dredger that weighs 500 metric tons. Indeed
it is – and at second glance, the difficulties are even
greater.
While tugs were towing the dredger on the Madeira
River, there were unforeseen complications.
The giant legs (up to 18 m) that are part of the
dredger could only be transported when the river
was at high tide, or they would get stuck in the riverbed.
Although the transport set out at the right
time, one of the legs was entangled in the vegetation
on the Madeira, requiring unconventional measures
for logistics. The need for improvisation and
creativity is a challenge Olex faces in all circumstances.
Besides the dredger itself, an extra wheel drill
has been shipped directly from the Netherlands to
Rio de Janeiro. The transportation from Rio to Porto
Velho had to be done over land, due to bureaucratic
red tape and the height of the wheel (5 m). Olex,
Santo Anônio Energia and the National Department
of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT) joined forces to
mount a special operation. The route had to follow
roads with no low overpasses.
These are just two examples of the difficulties of
transporting this kind of equipment. The Olex team
goes above and beyond to deal with all kinds of
complex logistics. They do everything from sourcing
materials, making international purchases, getting
48
informa