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ePaper created 2014-09-23, 08:46:06 | version 1.33.00
32 Issue Two 2014 International Matthew Ude is sitting in a 400 hp Volvo, although its speed is limited to 75 km/h because of the poor road conditions. Ude praises the perfect steering, good brakes and balanced driving properties – even with ultra-heavy payloads. The Meiller tipping semitrailer can accept up to 30 cubic metres. Granite blocks each one and a half metres in size are transported off the coast of Nige- ria for the “Great Wall of Lagos” which extends over about eight kilometres. As well as the weight, the volume is also decisive. The exceedingly tough Meiller tipping semitrailers are equipped with BPW axles. The axles supplied by BPW, referred to as balance beam axles (ECO Cargo W suspension), have to withstand a great deal, and smooth out some rough roads. “The challenges involve tipping it- self and, of course, the extremely poor road conditions,” says Schmidt knowingly. The maximum height in tipped position is just under ten metres. And good roads? You won’t find any such in Lagos. In the transport juggernaut that is Lagos, there is only one main road, traffic jams are everyday occurrences, and Lagos is growing day by day. Drastic contrasts The new peninsula is intended to be a total contrast; it will be the new Lagos directly adjacent to the Victo- ria Island district. Eko Atlantic is intended to become the “Dubai of Africa” and develop into Africa’s new financial metropolis by 2016 – in only eight years after the landfilling work started. Soon, 250,000 people are intended to live here, there should be 150,000 jobs and it will be the base for securities trading on the African stock market – all including an independent electricity and water supply. Nothing more and nothing less than a luxury district is in- tended to emerge off the coast of the mega metropolis Lagos with its 21 million inhabitants. Finance for this breath-taking project is coming from private sources. Gilbert Chagoury, an influential businessman from Leb- anon, is playing a leading role in this with his South Energy Nige- ria Ltd. The most prominent supporter of the project is none other than former US president Bill Clinton. Once all the work has been finished, the Eko Atlantic project will have seized back ten square kilometres of land from the sea. Reclaiming the masses of sand is the responsibility of the Belgian dredging specialist, Dredging International, part of the globally ac- tive DEME Group. The group founded in 1991 has also been re- sponsible for reclaiming Altenwerder as part of the expansion of the Hamburg port as well as for man-made building land all around Singapore. Photos:NickeJohansson,Meiller,Grafik:d-maps.com The granite payloads are used for building a wall eight kilometres long intended to protect the project against pitiless Atlantic storms.