350-MILE HAUL REQUIRES PATIENCE AND PLANNING

At a national laboratory in New Mexico, Barnhart was brought in to remove a 460,000-pound rotor and transport it across the state to a rail station in Clovis. 

First, the rotor had to be removed from the stator housing and building using 400-ton gantries and a Goldhofer PSTe 10-Line transport. In the yard, the 69’ long rotor was transloaded to a dual-lane transporter.

The convoy would eventually include two accompanying semi trucks, making a transport system that weighed 700,000 pounds and took up two traffic lanes. That made for a slow pace, as the convoy traveled the 350 miles to Clovis at approximately 25 miles per hour. 

While some of the journey took place on the interstate, about 75 percent was on two-lane state roads. New Mexico state troopers who accompanied the dual lane transporter set up rolling roadblocks, essentially clearing the oncoming lane so that it could pass through.  

At the rail station in Clovis, the rotor was lifted off the transporter and loaded onto a rail car for transport to Virginia.