Biggest pile driving machine to South America

10th October 2011

ALS’ European Project teams have worked together with their South American partners to successfully deliver a crawler crane, described as being “the biggest pile driving machine ever built of its brand” from The Netherlands to Brazil.

This versatile machine, which can be used as a lifting crane (275 tons capacity) as well as a pile driving machine totalling a volume of 800 cubic meters involved the shipment of some pieces weighing over 65 Tonnes.

ALS (Freight Management Nederland) BV’s special road transport team in Moerdijk, Netherlands considered the most economic and technically viable way to move the cargo by road and sea from the crane’s manufacturing base in Holland.

Once tested the machine was dismantled in to 50 pieces and was transported loose or packed in cases/ crates or bundles.

The ALS team arranged for suitable special trailers, as well as necessary lifting equipment to be in place for the operation adapted to handle a range of scenarios including: factory collection, mobilisation of cranes, positioning of trucks and trailers and delivery to outgoing seaport for loading on to ship. A variety of options was considered to suit the needs of several subcontractors involved and to avoiding waiting times and interruption to the transportation movement .

ALS’ Project Specialists were on hand 24 hours a day to supervise the entire operation, involving an independant marine cargo surveyor requested by ALS’ client.

ALS’ Ocean Projects team arranged a heavy lift vessel calling at Itajai port in Brazil especially for this consignment.

Loading operations went as planned and the ship sailed and arrived without any delays. The project took 2 months and ALS' partner and project team in Brazil closely monitored the safe arrival of the cargo in Brazil. On arrival the cargo was carefully inspected to ensure that there was no recorded damages and delivered directly to the client.

The crane will be used at the port of Itajaí for pile driving for the works of the port infrastructure offshore.