When a nuclear plant supplier needed "Absolutely, Positively" assurance for their outage at a nuclear power plant, they turned to Perkins Specialized Transportation Contracting.
Since the power plant was located on an island, hauling to the site would require crossing a mile-long causeway bridge. Several firms were contacted to haul the 110-ton component, but none could obtain hauling permits. When Perkins got the call, the supplier had been convinced that only a costly and time-consuming hauling/barging combination effort would work.
Within a few weeks, Perkins gained the approval of FL DOT for crossing the long causeway bridge with the heaviest load and was hired to move both the Reactor Vessel Head (85 tons) and Pressurizer Vessel (110 tons).
The schedule mandated separate shipments by chartered air cargo plane - an Antonov AN 124. The huge Russian-built jet would need to land at Orlando International - some 160 miles from the destination - because of runway length.
The new RV Head arrived and was safely unloaded to the Perkins Transporter. The following evening, FL Highway Patrol, DOT, and plant officials watched the massive transporter make its way toward the plant. The 168 mile-trip included city streets, U.S. Highways and over 90 miles of I-95... all safely executed using "Rolling Roadblocks" professionally coordinated and implemented by FL Highway Patrol Troop D under direction of Lt. Mike Roden.
Through the crossing of the causeway bridge itself would pose no challenge for Perkins dual lane 24-axle transporter (125T Deck DLL 10), the newly installed traffic circles on either end of the bridge seemed to many an insurmountable hurdle. But field measurements, AutoCAD layouts and fully steerable equipment made short work of the two difficult turns. The real challenge came unexpectedly, however, when weather delayed the second plane by a day.
Could the Perkins team get the plan unloaded on Sunday afternoon and hauled that night to meet a Monday morning delivery schedule?
Perkins received the vessel at 4:00pm on Sunday, tarped it, and secured the load before rolling out of the airport gate less than three hours later. By 5:00am that morning, the experess delivery was complete as the Perkins transporter moved through the plant gate - only 10 hours from the time of receipt until the valuable overnight delievery was complete.
Desite the challenges of obtaining permits when other firms could not, last minute delays, difficult turns, and an anxious customer, the Perkins team delievered two large and valuable overnight packages without incident... because execution matters most.