In March 2013, OOO SibTransservice Company completed implementation of the project to transport transformer equipment as part of the electrical substations rehabilitation and construction program on the territory of Tyva Republic. That was the first time ever the cargoes have been moved to such a far distance in Tyva’s modern history.
The company faced a challenging task to transport approximately 800 tons of items, including several transformers weighing from 46 to 107 tons.
The main issue in execution of this project was the fact that the nearest railroad branch ended roughly 700 km far from destination. Therefore, it was resolved to truck the equipment from the city of Minusinsk (Krasnoyarsk Krai) to Chadan settlement (the Republic of Tyva). In its turn, this task was also challenging due to 52 bridges and flyovers, including 43 bridges calling for additional reinforcement of primary supporting members to sustain the abnormal load. All this had to be implemented with a very strict deadline. Taken engineering solutions allowed this job to be done in due time, with minimum expenses for the client and high reliability level.
Additional difficulty was posed by the fact that the route passed through two constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and these are also seismologically unstable regions (several hundreds of earthquake shocks have been recorded on the territory of the Republic for the last two years). During preparation for this project, which had started six months before the immediate transport of transformers, the route and facilities were surveyed, design companies involved to work out engineering solutions on bridges reinforcement, and major arrangements done.
The equipment transport itself was ongoing in winter under harsh road and weather conditions. The air temperature during the haul was dropping to -45 degrees Celsius. In the course of the trucking, the haul combination had to tackle the passes of West Sayan Mountains (over 1,500 meters above sea level) accompanied by snowfalls, glaze ice and low temperatures. Upon arrival at the destination point, all the transformers were unloaded using rigging techniques.
As a result, OOO SibTransservice Company successfully completed this project within the time limits set by the client. This project forms part of Tyva Republic power system modernization activities.