In my last blog posts i have been discovering through the history about the ways people tackled the challenge of shifting heavy loads. I will explore the heavy lifting in my upcoming posts. For now i will stick to the horizontal shifting.
Why unconventional means of shifting if you have modular transporters (Modular Trailer or SPMT)?
There are situations where these conventional methods cannot meet the challenges. In cases where there are space constraints. In cases where site situation is such that the use of conventional techniques cost seems too high with respect to the project cost.
I will start with a seemingly funny (mind it, its genius stuff) but effective example shown below.
This photograph is reported from the Indian state of Kerala where a coconut tree was shifted to clear the area for construction work.
Instead of chopping the tree off these ingenious guys decided to shift the tree instead. Commercially i can not compare the cost between chopping off the tree with this method but i can surely say that the life of the tree was definitely saved, which is priceless.
In heavylift lingo, this method is known as "Skidding".
Skidding can be done either pulling or pushing. In heavy lifts we use either
- Winches or Strand Jacks
- Push Pull Cylinders (Compensating Technique)
In both the cases skid tracks, friction reducing materials like Teflon or PFC and Power Packs are common. Elevation cylinders for negating the effects of unevenness of the underlying surface is also used on case to case basis.
Below is an example of use of Strand Jacks for Skidding.
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| Installation of strand jacks |
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| Getting in the strands |
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| Skidding is in process |
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| Load out of 14500T Jacket. South China Sea, 130km offshore Sabah in East Malaysia. Executed by SARENS. |
