The State of Washington is visually stunning to travel, but a very challenging one in which to haul super-heavy and extremely over-dimensional cargo. Perkins handled the task of moving two package boilers for our freight forwarder client from Houston, TX to a major refinery in Blaine, WA located minutes from both the Pacific Ocean and the WA/BC border. At 46' - 0'' long, 20' - 0'' wide, 15' - 0'' high and weighing 256,400 lbs with an asymmetrical center of gravity, this pair of big boilers were challenging, but no match for the Perkins team of professionals. Perkins had both of the hauls completed flawlessly, but they required the investment of hundreds of man hours There were several face-to-face meetings and conference calls involving project planning, project updates, and negotiations with our client, the refinery owner’s project consultants, and each one of the states, counties, major cities, and townships along the route.
The boilers arrived into the Port of Houston by barge from Mississippi, a scope of work handled by a mid-south heavy rigging & transportation company under a separate contract issued by our client. Upon discharge at the ocean terminal, it was then discovered that the actual center of gravity didn’t match the manufacturer’s engineered center of gravity; a critical issue for load balance in highway transportation. Perkins dealt with this new issue applying sound engineering to arrive at a solution for our client.
Once loaded in Houston, the Perkins crew moved out of Texas on its long journey with the first of the two boilers for a scheduled meeting with law enforcement officials from MT, ID, and WA who wanted a first-hand look at our loaded transporter before issuing their permits. Upon arrival, representatives from all three states performed an unprecedented combined extensive inspection of our loaded transporter that included pulling measurements to ensure that our design matched what was in the field and they simultaneously weighed every axle. The praise from all of the state inspectors was effusive about the accuracy of our drawings, the professionalism of our superintendent and his crew, along with the excellent appearance and mechanical condition of our loaded transporter. Once we received our final permits, Perkins successfully and safely delivered the first boiler into the refinery in Blaine, WA. Delivery of the second boiler using the same hauling configuration was almost anti-climatic, but was equally successful!
