Fagioli was contracted to carry out the transportation of two of the heaviest steam generators ever built, from the manufacturing facility in Milan, Italy, to the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant, Tonopah, Arizona, USA. The first part of the project was the transportation of the four sections of the two generators from Milan to a second facility in Mantua. The two heaviest components, each weighing 550t, were transported by a specially designed convoy made by hydraulic platform trailers with a tailor-made Schnabel structure. The length of the convoy was 100m, with 480 wheels. Each section was then rolled on a special barge with a hydraulic elevating deck and transported to the second facility.
Once assembled, the two generators weighed 760t each. The schedule called for navigation on the Po river to Venice, but the water in the river dropped to record low levels. This unforeseen problem meant less time for Fagioli to deliver the generators before the outage at the Nuclear Power Station. Nevertheless Fagioli immediately developed plans and engineering studies and obtained permits to build an artificial temporary dam using “rock cages” and other special materials, positioned on the Mincio river bed, a smaller river that flows into the Po. The dam caused the water in the Mincio river to raise from 0.6 metres to 2.2 metres, for a stretch of approximately 2,600 metres, allowing the passage of the loaded barge. This astounding plan was performed in only 48 hours and repeated two times, for the passage of each generator.
The generators were then loaded in the port of Venice and transported in specially designed multi-purpose frames to the port of Guaymas in Mexico. Here the geared ship offloaded them on two sets of 32 axle lines of SPMT on an ocean going deck barge, for transport to Playa Encanto, where a docking facility was specially built.
The journey to the nuclear plant would include tight turns and corners. While SPMTs are not conventionally used for this distance and location, they were most suitable for the load.
As well as the SPMTs used to offload the generators, a total of 104 axle lines and 8 power pack units were then added. The SPMTs were configured to move the generators on bolsters by installing turntables at both ends of the transport frame.
The client requested Fagioli to move both generators at the same time and in the summer, with peak temperatures over 50°C. The convoy travelled 110 Km through Mexico and about 200 Km in the United States, on paved and dirt roads.