A long journey

A 360-ton stator, thousands of kilometers of transport route, and extreme conditions: the South African company Vanguard looks back on a particularly extraordinary project – with Cometto SPMT playing a key role. The transport took six months across the globe: from the starting point in Poland to the Matla power plant in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.

The starting point was Wroclaw, from where the cargo was transported by train to the port of Gdansk. From there, Vanguard coordinated the entire multimodal transport chain – from port logistics and shipping to the final transport leg in South Africa. „This project demonstrates Vanguard’s ability to deliver complete project solutions, from project cargo, international transport and port operations to overland transportation and final installation“, explains Laura Hodgkinson, Director of the company. „By managing every stage of the process, Vanguard ensured efficiency, reliability and the highest standards of execution for complex heavy lift projects.“

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700 kilometers across South Africa

After arrival at the port of Richards Bay, the next challenge was already waiting: a port embargo significantly complicated operations. Thanks to its own handling areas, Vanguard was still able to safely store the freight and keep the project schedule on track.

The Cometto SPMT units took the stator directly from the ship using an electronically steered, side-by-side coupled 10-axle 4-file configuration with Power Pack Units, and transported it to a staging area where it was prepared for onward transport.

Afterwards, the roughly 700-kilometer road transport across KwaZulu-Natal began – including the demanding route through the „Valley of a Thousand Hills“ with steep climbs, narrow passages, and partially poor road conditions. Heavy storms additionally made the transport significantly more difficult.

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Quick reconfiguration near the destination

Upon arrival at the Matla power plant, the final precision phase began, with the self-propelled modular transporters as the central transport solution: the axle lines picked up the stator again and moved it across the plant site to the installation area.

In close proximity to the final position, the load was repositioned once more and the SPMTs were reconfigured into a more compact 6-axle 4-file-setup in order to
safely pass through tight areas of the facility. Thanks to multi-directional steering with a steering angle of +135/-135 degrees, the vehicles offered maximum maneuverability and enabled precise handling even under the most difficult conditions. „Vanguard’s successful delivery of the stator further reinforces our position as a trusted partner in the power generation sector and a leader in delivering large scale, technically demanding logistics projects across global markets“, emphasizes Laura Hodgkinson, and the company continues to rely on the high reliability of Cometto technology in the future.