Power station chimney transport to leave thousands of households without electricity

print this

The impact of a special transport carrying a huge steel chimney to the Finnish energy supplier Fortum’s Suomenoja power plant in Espoo is to be noticed on traffic in Southern Finland in the next few nights.
      The convoy of special delivery trailers that left Kangasala, a municipality close to Tampere, on Wednesday night is so wide and high that more than 1,000 households will be left without electricity for a short time on the following nights.
      The special transport convoy includes four special combination trailers, six safety cars (two at the head of the convoy, one between each special combination, and one at the rear), and a clutch of "cherry-picker" trucks in the vanguard to lift traffic signs, electrical cables, and telephone wires.
      Dozens of traffic sign portals will have to be temporarily removed in order to give way to the chimney delivery.
     
The complicated and slow operation has been preceded by several months’ planning, during which the route has been checked many times, reports Director Matias Setälä from the Finnish transportation company Ville Silvasti Oy. The firm specialises in heavy haulage and transportation of oversized loads.
      To facilitate the transportation and installation, the factory chimney has been made in four parts.
      Even so, the cargo is so large that it would hardly be possible to carry anything of greater size than this on Finnish roads.
      When transporting this oversized load, for example motorways cannot be used as the parts of the chimney are too large to be taken through tunnels. Power outages are also necessary because in some places the steel chimney gets so close to the overhead powerlines that there would be a risk of an electric shock.
     
”The most important thing is that the cargo will reach its destination undamaged and without sacrificing occupational safety”, Setälä notes.
      ”We have to consider carefully each step we take. Any stoppage at the power plant would cause enormous indirect costs”, Setälä adds.
     
The factory chimney has been manufactured at the Vesmeta workshop in Kangasala near Tampere, and it will be a part of Fortum’s Suomenoja power plant.
      Last night the chimney was carried from Kangasala to Hämeenlinna, and tonight it will be taken from Hämeenlinna to Vihti, next to Espoo.
      On Friday night, the cargo will be hauled from Vihti to the coastal municipality of Inkoo, from where it will be transported to Espoo’s Suomenoja by barge in two consignments.
     
”Finland is one of the few countries in Europe where this kind of delivery is still possible, as the Finnish infrastructure is wide enough compared with some other European countries”, notes Managing Director Ville Silvasti.
      ”Within the confines of the Outer Ring Road in the Greater Helsinki area, everything is ten times more difficult”, Silvasti adds.
      This is one obvious reason for the decision to carry the loads by sea for the last part of the journey.
     
Fortum's Suomenoja plant produces district heat for the residents of Espoo, Kauniainen and Kirkkonummi, and electricity for the national network.
      The new plant under construction on the site will be fired by natural gas, and should be in operation before the end of 2009


Links:
  Fortum: Suomenoja Power Plant

Helsingin Sanomat