BARNHART HAULS “SHED ON STEROIDS”

Barnhart is no stranger to handling massive equipment and loads. We’ve erected the structure that held the world’s largest jumbotron and transported the components of the world’s largest tunnel boring machine.

Now you can add a couple of superloads, which Barnhart was hired to transport from Colorado to Wyoming, a trip of over 550 miles. Each load contained a compressor generator building with a pre-installed diesel engine and compressor inside. While it wasn’t the biggest cargo Barnhart has ever hauled, the loads were 20 feet wide, 22 feet high, 140 feet long and weighed around 400,000 lbs.

The trip started at the manufacturers in Colorado where two Barnhart teams from Los Angeles and Memphis converged and loaded the cargo onto two separate 8-line Eastrac trailers. For the first few days, the convoy maintained a speed ranging from 2 ½ to 25 miles per hour as it passed through small towns and along two-lane highways. Barnhart had to coordinate with utilities and municipalities along the route to raise traffic signals and power lines, plus they had to negotiate a roundabout, which took 45 minutes to complete.

The haul attracted attention and made the local news in Wyoming, where Gregory Cross, Barnhart’s heavy haul supervisor was quoted as describing the loads as “…a backyard shed on steroids.”In Wyoming, the load was too high to clear an Interstate 80 overpass, so both Eastrac trailers had to do a U-turn on the interstate. It was a maneuver that required assistance from the Wyoming Highway Patrol and highway traffic teams as motorists on both sides of the interstate had to stop while the load completed its turn.

Barnhart continued its circuitous route to the final destination, a natural gas pumping station. The project was completed a day ahead of schedule.