Exceptional transports and record-breaking movements

Activities made possible thanks to specialised personnel, the use of self-propelled Spmt and river barges, whilst lifting with special cranes

Marraffa‘s business consists of providing exceptional transport, national transport and crane services for all types of activity. The company, which has been operating for around 40 years with highly specialised personnel who have consolidated their position in the Italian and European transport sector, has recently been involved in two truly exceptional transports. The first case concerns the handling, or rather, a mega transport of two mega marine platforms at the Port of Taranto.

The Molo Polisettoriale, of which San Cataldo Container Terminal Spa of the Yilport group is concessionaire, is hosting important “project cargo” operations, in this case the maritime transport of non-standard and “oversized” cargo. The two platforms, the first of 650 and the second of about 500 tons, had reached Taranto from Genoa a few months ago, and had been temporarily placed on the quay while waiting for the works for the final installation to be completed. The handling of the two large loads was performed by a 10-strong team from the Marraffa company.

The unusual transport required a convoy of two Marraffa Spmt self-propelled vehicles arranged in parallel, each with 18 axles. The platforms were then loaded onto a ship for transfer to the high seas.

Specialised in large-scale exceptional transport, Marraffa also handled another titanic operation, transporting a 31-metre tower on a convoy about 40 metres long, 6 metres high and over 4 metres wide. This maxi-movement of extraordinary proportions began at Samec Spa in Livrasco (CR), a leading company in the mechanical construction sector, and ended in Mantova before embarking on its final destination, Venezuela. The tower, a carbon and stainless steel construction weighing a total of 70 tonnes, was commissioned by a Swiss engineering company which, in turn, received the commission from an American multinational in the sector. It will be used for the revamping of a fertiliser production plant located in Trinidad Tobago, in the Caribbean Sea, north-east of Venezuela. As far as Mantova, the tower was transported by road by the Marraffa company using the long convoy, travelling along numerous secondary roads as the load would not have been able to pass under the overpasses. Then the tower was loaded, again by Marraffa, onto a barge with destination Chioggia and then the port of Marghera. There the cargo was loaded onto a ship for the final journey to Venezuela.