Precisely as many days it took for the famous cartoon heroes to round the World using ordinary means of transport to achieve their goal.

In real life, it had to arrange «door-to-door» delivery of two heavyweight and oversized reactors with their weight of 515 and 120 tons and dimensions of 35 690 х 7 500 х 5 185 and 14 260 х 4 500 х 4 830 millimeters from the Port of Masan (South Korea) to the job site of «LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez» for 24-100 medium distillates hydro processing unit construction, using exclusively specialized means of transport. INCOTEC CARGO has been entrusted to realize this delivery project. As befits, when carrying out transportation of heavyweight and oversized cargo, difficulties have already arisen at the stage of equipment completing. In order to minimize expenses for bringing road and factory infrastructure into conditions required for loaded trailers parameters, the mounting ring of the heaviest reactor has been dismantled and the second set of saddles has been ordered. Whilst the cargo was still in manufacture workshop, INCOTEC CARGO in cooperation with sub-contractors have already started preparatory works, related to design and approval for construction /renovation of the berth, bridges and other objects on  route of reactors movement. It would be fair to mention that these works have been carried out before cargo arrival to the Perm Region and were subject to changing meteo- and hydrological situation as well as specific Russian document workflow. So, on the night of the 09th /10th of July 2014 both reactors and spare parts, tools and accessories (SPTA) were picked up ex works Doosan Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd by means of SPMT and delivered to the berth # 4 of the Port of Masan. Two months prior to the ocean voyage, our Company has chartered m/v «Lena», belonging to «SAL HEAVY LIFT», equipped with cranes of 550 tons SWL (in combination).
Delay in reactors production was 10 days and that became critical as the contractual date of delivery, determined by the Consignee to our Customer, was the 30th of September 2014 the latest.
It is evident that for transportation of such cargo it is necessary to use specialized geared vessel and, as distinct from ordinary feeder vessels, it is impossible to find and charter it within a couple of days. It had to make a difficult choice. Thanks to our partnership with «SAL HEAVY LIFT» it has been agreed to postpone vessel’s berthing without charging demurrage. But the transit time has been increased deliberately in order to compensate the Owner’s loss. Through efficient actions of vessel’s crew and agents, the process of loading, lashing and securing the cargo took one day. On the 10th of July 2014 the vessel started the voyage. On the 4th of September 2014 m/v «Lena» arrived at the Port of Saint Petersburg. It is well-known that the Port facilities in respect of heavyweights handling are limited by weights up to 450 tons.   The similar work has been carried out by INCOTEC CARGO in 2010. That was reactor with its weight of 430 tons for KINEF and it was reloaded by means of two floating cranes.  But in our case the weight was over 500 tons. Thus transshipment via the warehouse was not an option from the very beginning. The only possible way was direct reloading from the board of the ocean vessel on board of the barge. And for this purpose it was necessary to obtain permission of the Baltic Customs Office for the right to arrange customs clearance of the cargo without its physical placing into temporary storage warehouse. Through well-coordinated work of the customs broker and preparatory work which has been carried out beforehand, this issue was settled efficiently and in due time. For reactors transportation down the inland waterways of Russian Federation, INCOTEC CARGO has chartered the barge of project 1681, refitted for RO/RO method of unloading, with strengthened deck and equipped with ramps.
Design features of this barge were familiar to us as there was transportation experience on its board in 2004 (KINEF project) and then in 2010 (TANECO project).  Let us recall that within the frames of those projects there has been arranged transportation of reactors with their weight up to 1065 tons and later on simultaneous transportation of two reactors weighing 1250 tons each.
The project of stowage, loading, lashing and securing heavyweight and oversized equipment on board of a barge has been worked out mandatorily  as well as approval of Russian River Register has been obtained. Providing safe reloading carried out by means of vessel’s cranes fixed on the portside, pontoon was put afloat from starboard side. The goal – to ensure vessel’s stability during the process of reloading by way of ballasting the pontoon. The ballast volume was directly dependent on the weight of the cargo reloaded as well as of the vessel’s cranes outreach.
As a result, both reactors were cleared by customs, loaded on pedestals positioned on barge in definite points (and for reactor with its weight of 515 tons saddles were replaced with another ones), lashed and welded within 24 hours. The barge has departed the Port of Saint Petersburg on the night of the 06th /07th of September 2014.  
It turned out impossible to reduce the transit time due to frequent fogs, cropped up on route as well as low water level in Gorodets lock. That is why the barge was accompanied by three tugs, alternated with each other. Meanwhile at the place of reloading Ust-Tary, construction of RO/RO berth was coming to an end.  Sand and gravel mix «bed» was prepared based on current and forecasting water level of the Kama river as well as barge draft on arrival. The whole road route length, which is 21 kilometers, was also brought into compliance taking into consideration technical characteristics of loaded trailers (maximum parameters – length 40 meters, width 7.5 meters, height 6.7 meters, fully loaded weight 714 tons and steering radius from 21 to 38 meters).
It stands to mention particularly works on strengthening the bridge across the Mulyanka river.
At the stage of working out transportation project technical condition survey of the bridge has been carried out in respect of its load bearing capacity and it showed that the current technical condition with its present defects of operational life, safety, capacity was unsatisfied. Significant defects were found in elements of bridge road carpet and its span. Thus, the bridge hasn’t met current safety requirements regulations.   
          Calculations of the Project Bureau «Inventa» showed that all present defects should be eliminated; temporary supports should be installed in order to reduce effective span as well as pressure on span girders. All these would have provided required structural strength. As temporary supports there were used bridge constructions MIK-C. Upon completion the river channel cleaning,  stone bed has been made, concrete plates were laid, then steel plates and on this construction under span girders of the bridge, supporting columns MIK-C were installed. On the 23rd of September 2014 the barge with tug «Shlyuzovoy-240» has arrived to the roads of Ust-Tary. Immediately upon barge berthing, ballasting operations have begun. It was necessary to intake 400 tons of ballast into after compartments. During ballasting the water level in the Kama river had begun changing again. Such a situation has been also foreseen. So, some plates have been dismantled, the level of embankment berth has been lowered. All these allowed obtaining required gradient barge/ramps/roll-off to provide safe drive of loaded SPMT. However, it was impossible to start movement towards the job site on the next day. The route has cut across Kosmonavtov highway, which is the outbound route in Perm, and it was forbidden to block it on Friday. Due to that reason the transportation has been agreed on the morning 27th of September 2014 only.
The Project forwarding companies, which have had an experience of working in Ural Region, know how hard to overcome big hills. Constant uphills and downhills have made it impossible to take a breath. Our long-time partner Keen-Mark Company has shown a proper spirit once again. As it has been agreed with Permenergo, there were switched off or lifted by means of towers more than 30 overhead electric lines and cable networks. All these actions should have been implemented in such a way as to minimize trailer’s stops. Let us remind, that the total length of the route was 21 kilometers, the average speed of the loaded SPMT was 1,5 km/h only, taking into account 11-hour light day. Thus, the whole transportation process from the moment of start from berth and till trailers stop on the territory of «LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez» took 10 hours. On the next day 28th September 2014 the cargo has been transported inside the complex territory and delivered to the job site. The job site for 24-100 medium distillates hydro processing unit construction is located on the territory of «LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez» - operational Refinery - which has a great number of limiting constructions (pipelines, bridges, columns, light towers etc.), which are not subject to full dismantlement, as it is impossible to stop the working process of Refinery.   
To provide the space required for trailer driving, «LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez» has widened the steering radius, dismantled the light towers and cable bridge supports, deepened the road (up to 2,5 meters) in order to meet the height parameter when driving under two bridges. It should be noted that the transportation process has been supervised not only by our Customer and the Consignee but also representatives of a number of companies specialized in transportation of heavyweight and oversized cargo. In undivided opinion, the transportation process was acknowledged as successful and by the target date. Thus, INCOTEC CARGO has once again demonstrated by action that it is one of the leaders of project cargo transportation and capable to solve the whole complex of tasks connected with «door-to-door» deliveries.