trailer world issue One 2010

14 Issue One 2010 who give the drivers instructions by walkie- talkie to ensure they don‘t touch any house walls, trees or bridge abutments. The slightest lapse in attention or wrong movement could have expensive consequences. Each convoy is manned by up to 60 people – drivers, marshals and gendarmes. The transport is controlled and coordinated by a central office at Airbus in Toulouse which maintains radio contact with the convoy and tracks its progress in real time by GPS on the screen and with numerous CCTV cameras en route. The fibreglass cables laid specially for this purpose have also brought broadband internet to the local communities and their residents – another of the measures that has increased acceptance of the transports. But public acceptance quickly ceased to be a prob- lem once the A380 had attracted media inter- est to the remote region. “In the first few weeks and months, the vil- lages were lined with residents who applauded us as we passed through”, recalls Michel Ber- tier, driver of one of the trucks. The people living along the route are still proud of the Air- bus transports that bring a touch of the big wide world to their villages and towns. But the convoys have meanwhile become part of daily routine and applause has become a rarity. No- one feels hindered in any way, as during the day time the special transporters stay on one of the five specially built secure parking areas along the route. As the trucks only travel 20 km/h on average and never exceed 40 km and have to stop whenever side winds pose a risk of the high load tipping over, it takes three days (or better: three nights) for the 240 km jour- ney from Langon to Toulouse. Initially there was only one convoy per month, but once the assembly line reached its full capacity in 2008, the frequency increased to one convoy per week. (rkl) Photos:Capelle,Airbus,Keystone For people living along the route, the A380 convoys have become part of daily routine. intended for the aircraft industry and help to safeguard ten thousand jobs in the region. After a public tender, the contract for the road transport was awarded to the SME com- pany Capelle from Vézénobres in the South of France. “This was a huge challenge for us, but winning the contract made the whole work- force very proud, including those not directly involved”, recalls proprietor Daniel Capelle. The loads are pulled by six Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks, fitted with a 600 hp engine and a special gearbox to cope with the relatively long distances at extremely low speed. The Airbus parts are carried on low-loaders made by the French company Nicolas, measur- ing up to 28 metres in length. The larger units have twelve axles and 96 wheels, the smaller ones “only” 48 wheels. All the wheels on the low-loaders can be steered individually, and the units have electric motors for manoeuvring onto the ship or onto the shore, for example, and also within the terminal so that they only have to be actually towed on the road. The transports take place only at night between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., so that normal road traffic and the everyday lives of the peo- ple living along the route are hindered as little as possible. The trucks have been fitted with sound-proofing engine cladding and special exhaust silencers to cause the least disturbance to people‘s sleep. “We have taken Austrian‘s standards as the basis for noise protection, as these are the most stringent in Europe”, ex- plains Daniel Capelle. When the convoys set off, consisting of six trucks with low-loaders, accompanied by 20 gendarmes on motorbikes, the route is blocked off completely in sections of 15 km at a time for normal traffic. Electronic road signs have been installed along the route to keep other road users informed, giving in- dications of alternative routes. Each convoy carries the parts for a whole airplane: two low-loaders for the wings and one each for the tail, middle fuselage section, rear fuselage and cockpit. At many points, traf- fic signs and their posts have to be removed and returned again later on, once the extra- wide loads have passed. At particularly nar- row points, for example when passing through built-up areas, the trucks only move at walking pace and are accompanied by marshals on foot Multimodal transport of aircraft compo- nents by sea, river and specially upgraded roads. Reportage Info Enthralling pictures of the A380 transport convoys can be found online at http://www.photoamateur.net/convoy- airbus-a380.htm

trailer world issue One 2010

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