Skip to main content

Branches Team Up for Historic Haul

A recent Barnhart project to move some marine motors involved eight years, four motors, three stops and two branches. 

Although the most recent phase of the project occurred over a four-month period, the effort actually began much earlier. In 2016, Barnhart’s Mount Vernon, WA team received the 420,000-pound motors from ship’s gear and put them in storage at the Port of Seattle. The motors remained there until they were resold early last year.

Barnhart then partnered with Sea of Gravity to move the engines to Centralia, WA. Sea of Gravity was instrumental in managing the customer’s expectations. They kept them up to date with developments as the project had countless challenges and changes of course through its entirety. 

Next, Barnhart performed the physical portion of removing the motors from storage at the Seattle port and transporting them to the Port of Olympia via barge. The team utilized 24-lines of SPMT to meet pier loading concerns, as well as 500-ton slides and 400-ton gantries to remove the motors from the buildings and stage them dockside. In addition, a floating crane was used to load the motors to the barge. Upon arrival at the Port of Olympia, the crew received the motors via SPMT and staged them to be prepped for over-the-road transport.

Transportation Challenges

Throughout the entire process the team worked on longshore-controlled sites under demanding operating conditions. Plus, they had to meet challenging requirements set by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).

For the over-the road haul, Barnhart designed, fabricated and load tested specialized shipping frames to meet height and weight restrictions as dictated by WSDOT. These frames were secured with Barnhart’s adjustable rigging link system (ARLS) and earrings to achieve the required ride height.

For the transport, Barnhart used an 11×11 GS800 trailer combination, which was over 372 feet long with a gross weight just over 960,000 lbs. It was the longest permitted load ever in the state of Washington and the longest ever within Barnhart.

The team worked with city, state and county authorities to map out a 45-mile route through the I-5 Corridor to Centralia, WA. Although there were initial concerns about leaving the Port of Olympia, Barnhart’s Los Angeles team developed a solution. They backed the trailer out of the port nearly 1.5 miles, removed a single tree and worked through a residential area to reach I-5. The LA team completed all four round-trip moves in less than a month without any incidents, first-aids or recordable injuries.

The partnership between Barnhart’s Mount Vernon and Los Angeles branches is the perfect example of how Barnhart utilized two branches with different areas of expertise. They came together under a “One Team” mindset to achieve ultimate success for our customers.

A 372-foot GS800 trailer travels through a neighborhood on its way to Centralia, WA.
Photo: Sea of Gravity

SHARE THIS POST