A terminal designed specifically for handling heavy loads and special cargoes has opened for business on the Albert canal in the Belgian industrial region of Geel-Westerlo. It is directly connected to all Western and Central European inland waterways and has rail access.
Development of the terminal was inspired by problems faced by plant manufacturer Coek, based in Westerlo, which needs to deliver and transport at least two columns a year over the next few years. These columns each weigh 550t and are 73m long. With it being impossible to move these loads by road, and with the Flemish government keen to encourage freight off roads and onto waterways, the development of the new heavy load terminal was supported by both the government and the EU Commission in Brussels.
Equipped with a16m-wide ro-ro ramp for heavy loads and an adjoining heavy lift quay for lift-on/lift-off handling of heavy and outsized pieces by mobile cranes, the terminal is operated by RoRo Trans, a private company based in Geel. Rail access designed for axle loads up to 32t is being extended by 300m alongside the quay wall. This will lead to a hall that will soon be built for storing and handling heavy components. Mobile cranes up to 650t capacity are available for lift-on/lift-off operations.
Heavy pontoons and coastal vessels can reach the terminal via Antwerp. At Maastricht the Albert canal connects to the Meuse and the Dutch Juliana canal, giving access to the Northern France industrial region and to the Rhine water network extending through Europe to the Black Sea.
Although the official inauguration of the terminal was as recently as 22 February, the first shipment through the new facility was in November 2001 when the Adams transport group loaded out a 216t reactor vessel. The vessel, 14m long and about 9m in diameter, was shipped to the terminal from Coek’s premises on a 14-axle low-loader. A pair of 500t mobile cranes loaded it onto a ro-ro vessel which took it to the port of Antwerp, where it was transferred to a sea vessel which took it to the port of Zhuhai in the Pearl River delta of the Southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
