Power Plant for La Chorrera / Panama

DAKO WORLDWIDE TRANSPORT GMBH has recently finished the transportation of a diesel engine driven power plant with a capacity of approx. 50 MW from different points of origin in Northern and Southern Europe to La Chorrera / Panama. The transportation of the heart of the plant consisting of 3 heavy diesel engines with unit weights of almost 300 tons and the following dimensions of 14,30 x 4,10 6,35 m was done from Triest via the Panama Canal to Puerto Caimito and from there up to the final construction site in La Chorrera. The total weight of the transport combination on the road was close to 420 tons.

The engines were discharged in the port of Cristobal by ship's gear and directly loaded on a float top barge where previously respective stools and beams were installed to receive the heavy lifts. Engine no. 3 was directly placed on a 16-axle Goldhofer hydraulic trailer with a nominal capacity of 600 tons. Th transport proceed through the Panama Canal, passed by the port of Balboa, and headed up northeast along the coast line to the small fishing port Puerto Caimito. At this port DAKO constructed a jetty for the ro/ro discharge of the heavy pieces. The jetty was built 100 m into the sea in order to reach the necessary draft during high tide.

In addition to the construction of the pier it was necessary to strengthen three bridges on the way from Puerto Caimito to the power plant next to the city of La Chorrera, remove traffic signs and cut branches of trees. On the only feasible transport route the crossing of the very busy highway from Panama City up north and the stoppage of all traffic had to be organized. A very big problem was the lifting of electricity-, telephone- and datacables on the whole on-carriage route and especially in the community La Chorrera in order to allow the transport with a height of total 7,10 m to safely reach the site. At the construction site DAKO and its subcontractor were responsible for the placement of the diesel engines onto foundation. The same applied for the three generators with unit weights of 70 tons which were transported from Cristobal directly by low bed trailers to the site as well as for the heavy transformer.

For the passage of the last bridge reaching the power plant with a length of 56 m, DAKO used a supporting system on the first section of the bridge and installed an over-bridge with a capacity of 400 tons and a length of 27 m on the second section. The technically challenging transport was successfully executed.