Russian spaceport transportation job

Utrecht, Netherlands-headquartered heavy lift and transportation specialist Mammoet transported 14 pieces of heavy and oversized equipment for the construction of a Russian spaceport.

Mammoet was commissioned to unload the items from a barge and transport them 60 km to the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur region of far eastern Russia. To unload the cargo, Mammoet used two heavy-lift cranes, the Liebherr LR-11350 and LR-1750, and Goldhofer trailers and semi-trailers to deliver the items to the construction site.

The cargo included parts of two different big structures, the launch pad and a vacuum chamber for the launch area of the Angara space rocket complex, with a total weight of about 600 tonnes. The vacuum chamber alone had a diameter of 9 metres.

Mammoet said that its previous experience working in the area, as part of the construction of the Amur Gas Processing Plant (AGPP), plus the local availability of its lifting and transportation equipment helped it secure the contract.

“This was a very big and important project for us,” said Alexey Zhugan, Mammoet’s project manager on site. “Our client trusted us to deliver multiple crucial pieces of equipment to the construction site over a rather large distance. We did so not only in the safest, but also in the most efficient way possible, adhering to the given time frame.

“For every piece of equipment, we needed special permits. There are also quite complex logistics involved in moving such large cargo. We had to block regional roads as well as the federal road that connects Moscow with Vladivostok for a couple of hours during the night to transport the loads. All this requires careful planning and approval of every detail of the project.”