PRESS RELEASE – Mammoet has utilized its Trailer Power Assist (TPA) for the first time in Norway. The system is designed to improve transport efficiency and is helping the heavy-lift company to safely move 23 running generators and hubs along a dangerous route. 

The system is being used to transport the generators and hubs along a critical section of the route to a wind farm site near the northern Norwegian town of Narvik. Mammoet was contracted by Deugro Danmark and Siemens Gamesa to complete the challenging section of the journey that required both powerful equipment and skilled operation to maintain the highest levels of safety.

Anders Bräuner, Sales Manager Mammoet Denmark, explains: “Safety is vital on every project. The four-kilometre section of the route to the Narvik site involved climbing an 18% gradient and navigating 12 to 14 hairpin bends. With each generator weighing 74 metric tonnes and each hub weighing 47, we needed to use the TPA system to maintain safety”.

TPA is a powered trailer system designed to improve transport efficiency and lower the carbon footprint of long haul heavy transport projects. An alternative to SPMTs and conventional prime movers, it consists of six-axle lines, the middle four of which are driven by a 1,000 horsepower hydraulic power pack. This system delivers twice the pulling force of a conventional prime mover.

Bräuner continues: “Traditionally, an operation of this magnitude would have involved several vehicles working together. With multiple drivers having to work as one, this would have made negotiating numerous hairpin bends especially difficult and time-consuming. Combined with the TPAs’ decreased turning radius and the improvements this gives for navigating tight bends, this solution mitigated the risks involved with multi-truck configurations and improved the safety and speed of each individual journey.”

By reducing the number of vehicles needed to complete the transport, the TPA also offers sustainability improvements which are becoming increasingly important.