Whether the challenge is TBM assembly in the most populous city in the world, or delivery to a remote site, those managing the transport of these huge masses of steel agree: it is seldom an easy process. "TBMs are different from industrial project cargo, in that they are transported to the job site just to accomplish the boring of the tunnel and need to be removed after that," says Ralf Riemeier, owner of Freight Forwarder Contex Shipping, with 18 years of experience in the field. "Many of those projects are in areas that do not offer the infrastructure needed for smooth and easy transport of such huge and heavy components. It is often a big adventure, which needs a lot of creative people to get the job done."
That adventure is well underway on a number of Robbins projects — from a TBM assembled in the snowy mountains of Georgia to an inaccessible project in Vietnam requiring nearly 100km of newly built road. The process is understandably a long one, beginning before the TBM contract is even signed.
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Far ahead of the game
Planning of shipping begins early on, as part of a quote for an upcoming project, and are refined as the manufacturing moves forward. Melea Basom, Robbins logistics coordinator says, "Logistics planning begins with accurate drawings from the engineering department with input from the project manager, which we then insert piece by piece into a spreadsheet showing the dimensions and weights. Once we have nominated the freight forwarder for the job, we are involved with the shipment until it lands at the port or job site, depending on the contract terms."
TBMs are typically assembled via two methods: either in the shop, or at the jobsite using Onsite First Time Assembly (OFTA). Once a machine assembly in the shop is complete, the breakdown process begins, at which point the final part numbers, dimensions and weight for each component are included in a packing list that is attached to each skid/crate or floor item. The process for an OFTA project is quicker, as the various components can be weighed and packed without the assembly and disassembly process. OFTA allows machine components to be initially assembled onsite, often saving four to five months on the delivery schedule.
Regardless of the assembly method, however, detailed planning is absolutely necessary to get components to the jobsite. "The major issue is to plan and organize the entire transport from the production plant to the final destination well ahead of time. It is of vital importance to place firm orders for all sections of the entire transport chain when the machine is about ready to leave the plant," says Riemeier.
Components are most often transported by cargo vessel to ports around the world, and then trucked to jobsites. Air freight is generally reserved for emergency shipments of spare parts, due to its high cost. "Every country has its quirks when it comes to the necessary documentation," says Linda Ricketts, Robbins international shipping coordinator. Ricketts mentioned Turkey and Russia as requiring multiple types of documentation for each shipment, though she said all countries can be challenging in various ways.
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By GlobalDataThe overall goal of the entire shipping process is to enable the successful execution of some complex schemes. "One of my most challenging projects was the transport of a Robbins TBM for refurbishment from Morocco to a storage area in Germany.
"The components were spread out in a large remote desert area in the mountains of Settat, approximately 40 miles (64.4km) south of Casablanca," says Riemeier. The remote location required the crew to bring all equipment such as heavy duty mobile cranes and forklifts to load the various parts onto flatbed trucks. A small bridge en route to Casablanca also had to be reinforced to carry the weight of the trucks. Once the parts reached the port, says Riemeier, the limited capacity of the port-based cranes required them to charter a vessel with heavy duty gear to lift the components onboard for shipping.
From the high desert to snowy mountaintops
A similarly complex shipping scheme was needed recently for the Stephandsminda hydropower project in Georgia. The 5.5km headrace tunnel and 68MW power plant construction sites are located 160km from Tbilisi in the mountainous Kazbegi District of northeastern Georgia. Snow often blankets the area, which is more than 1,700m high and dips to sub-zero temperatures during the winter.
A 5.3m diameter refurbished Robbins Main Beam TBM was launched in February 2012 to excavate the headrace tunnel — a successful milestone in what was a long journey that began in the high desert of New Mexico, USA. "We arrived at the storage yard in Farmington, New Mexico in above 100o Fahrenheit (37.8oC) weather on 6 July 2011. The pieces needed to be matched up to manual drawings and the shipment was on a tight schedule, leaving Houston, Texas for the Port of Poti, Georgia by 6 August," says Gene Lockhart, Robbins special projects manager.
Lockhart and his team members located the parts based on machine drawings, all the while simultaneously planning for oversize trucking and permitting of components weighing up to 24t.
"The pieces had been in the storage yard for a while, which is in a dry and hot climate in order to preserve the steel. The steel was in great shape, but of course all the hose lines and anything rubber had to be replaced. We had the main bearing and main drive assemblies shipped to Ohio for cleaning, inspection, and reconditioning," says Lockhart.
After components had been located, the Robbins team hired a local carpenter for bracing and boxes, and then rented a 136t crane and 54t crane to load components onto 25 flat bed and dual axle trucks. "We had to have special permits for some loads to drive through Texas and New Mexico, and we were just an inch or two below the requirements for police escorts," says Lockhart. Once at the port in Houston 1,450km to the southeast of the storage site, a chartered vessel picked up components for the five week long voyage to Poti.
Once in Georgia, major components were refurbished in the contractor Peri LLC’s shop. From there, components were trucked into Kazbegi on narrow roadways that gave way to dirt roads for the last few miles. "The weight is not the most critical issue in situations like this; the major concern is always the width. As the components always need to be carried from the port to the final destination by truck, the narrowest spot to the destination sets the limit," says Riemeier, whose company Contex was involved in the shipping of the TBM.
The TBM components arrived at the site in December, in bone-chilling temperatures that often reached -15oC, and -40oC with the wind chill factor. Assembly was often challenging due to the conditions: "The assembly team could only work an hour and a half to two hours at a time at the site, and then we had to go back into the shelter to warm up. It took about 40 days to complete TBM assembly, and we launched on 19 February," says Lockhart.
The assembly in Kazbegi was a success, and the ensuing TBM drive even visited by the President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili. "We jointly worked with the Robbins field service team from the very beginning. We appreciate their experience and relied on them during the working process, where they trained our staff on operation, refurbishment and assembly," said Nana Gvazava of Peri LLC. As of April 2012 the machine had advanced 300 m in slate, sandstone, limestone, and malms.
Building a road where there was none before
The ultimate in complex shipping schemes, however, may be one currently in progress at Vietnam’s Thuong Kon Tum Hydroelectric Project. The 220 MW capacity power station will utilise the country’s longest tunnel, at 17.4km, when complete. The scheme, set to go online in five years, will draw water from the Dak Nghe River to supply electricity to the Central Vietnam region.
The tunnel will be bored with the second Robbins machine to operate in the country, a 4.5m diameter Main Beam TBM. Other Robbins supplies include the backup, cutters, spare parts, and a continuous conveyor system for muck removal. The tunnel work is part of phase two of the hydroelectric project, for the HydroChina Huadong Engineering Corporation / China Railway Construction 18th Bureau Group Co. JV.
Just getting the equipment to the exceedingly remote site is the project’s biggest challenge. The jobsite is located in a mountainous region 142km away from Ho Chi Minh Port, 95km of which have either no roadway or rudimentary dirt roads only accessible with four-wheel drive vehicles. The contractor is currently building portions of the roadway to the jobsite while components are being staged at the port site. Several bridges, previously built only for light traffic such as bicycles and carts, must also be rebuilt or reinforced in order to carry the heavy TBM components. In a road condition survey report by logistics firm SDV Vietnam Company, the original bridges were described as ‘having no shoulder’, while some roads were nearly impassable, described as having ‘blind corners and sharp curves’. In part to reduce stresses on bridges, OFTA is being used to allow shipments to arrive at the site in smaller pieces.
"I’ve seen some of the pictures prior to road construction, and it was absolutely amazing. A donkey and cart were just small enough to fit on the road," says Ricketts. As of April 2012 construction of the new roads and bridges was nearly complete, and transport of components was scheduled to begin in late spring.
Full circle
While shipping is often complex, the freight forwarders and logistics personnel involved find the task challenging and rewarding. "We treat every single project like it is the first one. There will be permits, regulations and logistics to map out, but we always manage to complete the task," says Axel Strege, also a freight forwarder with 10 years experience at Contex.
Ricketts echoes the same sentiments: "There are always challenges with time constraints and shipment sizes, but when things work out it is rewarding. It’s great for me to hear about TBM launches and breakthroughs, and to know I played a part in that."
Of her next project, Ricketts says it will be equally as challenging as some of her recent ones — getting two 6.3m Robbins EPBMs for San Francisco’s new Central Subway project into a densely urban downtown area.
"The site is right in the heart of the city, on a cobblestone street that must be torn up to create shafts for the machines. We have to get large pieces from the port through some narrow streets, and we are working with truckers now to determine how those pieces will fit." In short, it will be an adventure, and one that Ricketts is ready to take on.
