Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies - August 2008 - (Page 45) With the exception of one scheduling delay, the fabrication process for the 11 giant components went off without a hitch. Even the long water journey required for most of the pieces was not a significant challenge. “While these moves were very long, commercially available self-geared, heavylift vessels made these shipments fairly routine,” says Scerra. “The pieces were easily reloaded from ship to barge at the port of Hamburg. There were no physical obstructions that we had to deal with.” The Last Miles The logistics challenges really started when the pieces arrived on German soil. There was no way to move pieces weighing up to 270 tons several hundred kilometers by rail or over conventional highways to Leuna. In fact, the logistics planning for the final delivery of the components to the site took an entire year. When the plant project was in its earliest stages, the major risk factor that Carey and his team at Quinn considered was the feasibility of getting the components to the site on time and intact. “We knew there would be obstacles to the transport such as seasonal water levels for barge transports, route difficulties for road hauls, and so on,” says Carey. “Some of these issues were easy, such as static calculations of bridge capacities. Other issues, such as crossing railway lines and closing roads would require a great deal of handson coordination with many agencies, public and private. We even looked at the possibility of on-site re-assembly of some components and the impact of potential delays in deliveries. All of this detailed planning and the large amount of coordination with different parties had to happen as early as possible in the project phase.” BDP Project Logistics was one of several firms considered for the transportation work. BDP Project Logistics Germany was formed in 2006 as a division of BDP Project Logistics Philadelphia, in existence in the U.S. since 1991 as part of Pa.-based BDP International. The German division had no track record for such a large project, so it started its detailed planning in February 2007 before the contract was to be awarded. The leading competitor had already started its preliminary planning months before and nearly landed the contract before BDP even had a chance to bid. “We got the job in April 2007 even though we were an unknown in the German market,” says Scerra. “I think we were awarded the logistics work because of detailed planning that we were able to present to Quinn and our ability to deal with their concerns.” For example, BDP’s plan called for delivery of every component intact, regardless of its size or weight. The solution proposed by a competitor was to cut the very long towers in two to make it easier to transport and lift them across the rail lines with a crane. This approach would have required re-welding of the severed pieces on the site, then test- On the road portions of the journey within Germany, all 11 components moved on special lowboy trailers with many axles to spread the load. The trailer for the 270-ton reactor had 21 axles. One truck pulled and another one pushed. For the “smaller” 100-ton pieces, BDP used low-boy trailers with 10 axles. The narrow roads, power and telephone lines, small bridges, abundant trees and many small towns along the way presented problems at every step. GLOBAL LOGISTICS & SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES 45
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.