28th Nov 2016, Fagioli were involved in a door-to-door transport of sections for the biggest Tunnel Boring Machine ever built in Europe, with the transport equipment of hydraulic modular trailers
The TBM called “Santa Lucia” (Saint Lucy) will be used for the drilling of the huge tunnel, for the completion of the route of the A1- “Variante di Valico” between Bologna and Florence. The TBM was manufactured in Germany Once arrived at the port of Ravenna, the sections were directly unloaded onto Fagioli hydraulic modular platform trailers, ready for the 165 km journey up to final destination.
The peculiarity of the size of the three convoys, with length between 68 meters (the longest) and 28 meters (the shortest), in width up to 9.30 meters and with a weight between 180 and 320 ton, determined the adoption of drastic traffic regulation measures, to protect the safety of circulation.
The convoy was escorted for the entire trip by Fagioli operators, by the patrols of the traffic Police department, and by Anas (Association of National Roads) and Autostrade per l’Italia (Highway For Italy) due to the huge dimensions of the sections involved.
The last two associations implemented the operational plan, in agreement with Fagioli technicians and the local provincial public security authorities, with bans and traffic detours managed at each intersection by the local police forces, to ensure the fluent transport operations of the three convoys. The maximum hydraulic modular trailer speed allowed for the convoy was 20 km/h, reduced to 5 Km/h on viaducts, with the transit of only one convoy at a time.
The transport concerned the biggest first sections of the tunnel boring machine, which, when completed, will have a final diameter of 15.87 meters and a total weight of about 4800 ton.