DCN0718_Combined_150

RO-RO & CAR CARRIERS
TRAMS BY SEA
An innovative system allowed new trams to be shipped from Germany to Brisbane
How to get a tram from Germany to the Gold Coast? On a
ro-ro vessel, of course.
Two 43.5-metre Bombardier trams were recently shipped
from Germany to Queensland on a Höegh vessel, using
rolltrailers.
However, there is a problem with using normal rolltrailers,
as they are only 24.4 metres long. So, why not just connect two
trailers end to end?
Höegh global breakbulk operation manager Geir Paulsen
said the company came up with the extended rolltrailer
concept, connecting the two trailers with a “Höegh Bridge”.
“These have been tested and approved and the prototype
was used for this operation,” he said.
“The railcars were loaded on a special truck trailer at the
factory in Austria and driven directly on board Höegh Traveller
in Bremerhaven. On board the vessel, the trams were
pulled from the 50-metre-long truck trailer to the extended
rolltrailer concept.”
Mr Paulsen continued, saying, “with the success of this
shipment it proves that our development in customised
solutions offer higher quality and less risk for new types of
cargo which would not have normally been loaded on a ro-ro
vessel in the past”.
Höegh area sales manager for Oceania Brendan Wallis said
generally the company had been seeing good utilisation of
specialised breakbulk equipment.
“We’ve invested heavily in specialised equipment to carry
more breakbulk cargo on a ro-ro solution, which has really
worked well, and we’ve seen good success, especially in
the rail and energy segments,” he said.
In addition to the Gold Coast tram shipment, Mr Wallis said
the company had carried out other cargo movements with
creative uses of rolltrailers.
“We’ve also done some ultra-wide rolltrailers where we join
two of them side-by-side and load and discharge them at the
same time using a specialised gooseneck,” he said.
“Also, we have some ultra-low mafi trailers, which allow us to
load higher cargo on our vessels.”
An example of this is a colossal drum transported from
Spain to Australia last year.
Röhlig Spain needed to transport a 90-tonne rotary drying
machine drum to Port Kembla. With a diameter of 7.25 metres,
it was too wide to put on a single rolltrailer (which have a
diameter of 2.6 metres).
Höegh had developed a double mafi concept that had been
tested in the US, with the prototype being used to transport a
7.2-metre-wide catamaran from Antwerp to Brisbane.
Mr Paulsen said the two rolltrailers were put together using
a coupling kit system
“The system comprises of an easy to use system, which
locks two 40-foot rolltrailers side by side,” he said. “A twin
gooseneck was also developed and produced on a Höegh
design, and this ensures the tug master has a firm hold of the
rolltrailer at all times during transport.”
The trams were transported all in one piece on special trailers
38
First published in 1891
July 2018 thedcn.com.au