More than a hundred meters long wind turbine blades, converter transformers weighing up to a hundred tons, liquid nitrogen storage tanks with a capacity of over a thousand cubic meters... To transport these various forms of "large blocks", logistics industry special forces - large items need to be transported out of the factory workshop, cross mountains and steep mountains, cross bridges and tunnels, and even send them to the other side of the ocean. The characteristic lies in "large" and the key lies in "transportation". Large cargo transportation refers to the over limit transportation of non detachable items, which must meet at least one of the following conditions: the total height of the vehicle and cargo from the ground exceeds 4 meters, the total width of the vehicle and cargo exceeds 2.55 meters, the total length of the vehicle and cargo exceeds 18.1 meters, and the total weight of the vehicle and cargo exceeds 49 tons. What challenges do we need to face and overcome when transporting these "big chunks"? On April 16th at 16:00, with the command of the on-site command personnel, a large-scale transportation project spanning more provinces from east to west, which took 38 days, was officially announced to have been completed. Calculated, the entire transportation distance is up to 3000 kilometers, making it one of the most complex and difficult large-scale transportation projects in domestic multimodal transportation. In February this year, the transportation project of the Tianfu South 1000 kV substation for the Sichuan Chongqing ultra-high voltage project of State Grid began. As a carrier, China COSCO Shipping will transport several transformers weighing 345 tons per unit from Changzhou, Jiangsu to the construction site in Jingyan County, Leshan, Sichuan. "As a national key project, the Tianfu South Substation new construction project is planned to be completed and put into operation by the end of this year. This means that the project has a short cycle and tight transportation tasks. It is necessary to carefully plan the plan, carefully organize transportation, fully coordinate resources from all parties, and ensure smooth supply." Hao Housen, the overall project commander of China COSCO Shipping Corporation, said. From the place of origin to the destination, it is thousands of kilometers long and is transported by land and water intermodal transportation in two routes: the first route is from the Changzhou factory to the Changzhou power transmission and transformation heavy-duty and large cargo terminal by road. After unloading and loading, it is transported by inland river to the Zhenjiang Erzhong Terminal, and then transferred to the main channel of the Yangtze River to Yibin Port in Sichuan; In the second journey, after being lifted ashore from Yibin Port, it will be transported by bridge to Jingyan County and transported to the project site using SPMT self-propelled hydraulic flatbed trucks. The entire process involves four changes and multiple modes of intermodal transportation, but this is not the biggest challenge of this transportation. "The first section of the road is a dedicated road for large cargo, while the waterway section mainly uses the Yangtze River waterway. Although there are many transportation links, the overall difficulty is not high." Hu Hong, the project manager of China COSCO Shipping Large Cargo Company, said that as we entered the second section, the road conditions became more complex and the transportation difficulty increased sharply. On March 15th, a transformer that came all the way from Changzhou, Jiangsu was unloaded at the Yibin Lingang Port and loaded onto a nearly 100 meter long bridge type load-bearing beam car train, entering the last section of 156 kilometers of road transportation. "The last 16 kilometers of this journey belong to the village and town mountain road, passing through 3 bridges, 36 bends, 211 aerial obstacles, and two extremely narrow sections, making transportation extremely difficult." Hu Hong said that in order to ensure smooth transportation, China COSCO Shipping actively coordinates multiple departments such as transportation, public security, and electricity to work together and develop safe and feasible transportation guarantee measures - narrow roads and sharp bends, widening and renovating; Insufficient bearing capacity of the bridge, reinforcement and improvement; Insufficient clearance along the way, need to be raised and cleared. Overcoming numerous challenges, the transformer successfully arrived at the project site and was in place. In the near future, they will continuously transmit and transform electricity here, providing electricity security for the Chengdu Chongqing dual city economic circle. In just 42 kilometers, I walked for 3 hours on a super long box girder "Journey Record" at 3am on May 25th. On the road from Yixing in Wuxi, Jiangsu to Wujin in Changzhou, a convoy slowly approached, with two 40 meter long box girders weighing over 150 tons each, as well as two 12 meter long and 180 ton cap girders each, escorted by four extra long trailers and eight law enforcement vehicles. Super long box girder and overweight cover girder - this time, the transportation of large items serves the construction of the smart expressway on Tenglong Avenue in Changzhou, a major local project. According to convention, for large items with a total weight of 100 tons or more, it is necessary to first review and evaluate the condition of the bridges along the line, model and verify whether the bridges can bear the load, and then plan suitable transportation routes and times. To ensure transportation safety, a plan discussion was held before starting the road, with the participation of experts in transportation engineering and transportation, as well as major equipment approval agencies, highway maintenance agencies, and public security departments along the route. How to turn large items? This is the first level to pass. "The biggest difficulty in actual transportation is turning." According to Feng Hupu, the relevant person in charge of the Wuxi Transportation Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Supervision Bureau, due to the excessively long box girder, when turning right from Qidi Road in Yixing City to S240 Provincial Road, the intersection has a 70 degree sharp angle, and the turning radius is not enough. In addition to the two lanes in this direction, two lanes in the opposite direction need to be borrowed twice. Therefore, the transportation time is chosen at the minimum traffic flow in the early morning to minimize the impact on traffic order. At 3:10 am, when traffic law enforcement vehicles escorted the convoy to this turning point, the opposite lane had been temporarily controlled. Staff from traffic law enforcement and traffic police departments were on duty at four intersections, waiting for the convoy to pass before quickly resuming traffic. Just solved the problem of being overweight, the second challenge is coming. What should I do if I am overweight? At 4am, the journey was halfway through. When the first trailer of the convoy slowly passed through the Nanhe New Bridge in Jintan District, Changzhou, the staff of the Changzhou Transportation Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Detachment were already ready. They each drove a law enforcement vehicle with flashing police lights, closely following several lanes behind the trailer, and continued to "press down" after one vehicle had passed. "The total weight of this transport vehicle exceeds 200 tons. In order to ensure the safety of the bridge's load-bearing capacity, it is necessary to ensure the 'single load vehicle travel', which means that only one heavy vehicle can travel on a bridge deck at a time." According to Zhou Yu, the person in charge of the detachment, there are a total of 27 beam bridges from Yixing to Wujin, and the traffic law enforcement departments of the two places provide relay escort to ensure traffic safety. At 6 o'clock in the morning, the sky turned white with fish bellies, and the traffic on the road gradually increased. The large items were successfully transported to their destination. At this point, during this 42 kilometer and approximately 3-hour transportation journey, various departments seized the "window period" to ensure fast and safe transportation. "With the accelerated release of production capacity for heavy-duty construction machinery, wind power, and transmission and transformation equipment, the transportation volume of large items continues to grow." The relevant person in charge of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Transport introduced that the Ministry of Transport launched the cross provincial parallel permit system for large cargo transportation in 2017, which opened up the approval channel for the national network and cross provincial approval of large cargo transportation permits, greatly improving the efficiency of handling large cargo transportation. The next step is to further improve the quality of transportation services for large items and better support the development of the manufacturing industry and major engineering construction. There is a troubleshooting vehicle in front, and a monitoring vehicle behind. The chemical tank "Entering the Park Record" on May 22nd was just past midnight. As three transport vehicles carrying chemical tanks arrived at the Jinxiang Chemical Industry Park in Meishan, Sichuan, Cao Yuhao breathed a sigh of relief and felt a stone fall in his heart. "From Leshan to Meishan, it's less than 80 kilometers, but it took almost a day. The transportation of large items cannot be neglected." Cao Yuhao is the driver of the supervision vehicle of Huayang Huarong Large Item Transportation Company in Deyang, Sichuan. His task is to escort large goods and ensure the safety of transportation. At 5am on the 21st, it was not yet dawn. A convoy is ready to depart from Leshan Port - on the central transport vehicle, the red front of the vehicle is pulling, and the white chemical tank, 36 meters long and 4.7 meters high, is particularly prominent; On the front row of the obstacle car, the bamboo pole stands upright and marks the highest point of the tank body; The rear monitoring vehicle presses the track, ensuring a safe distance throughout the journey and observing the passage of goods in real-time. Transport vehicles and monitoring vehicles alternate in an orderly manner. When driving near the Leshan Ring Expressway, Cao Yuhao noticed that there were vehicles temporarily stopping under the bridge. Everyone grab a tape measure, get off immediately, and quickly measure the width of the passage. Fortunately, there is still room for improvement on the road surface. After confirming the accuracy on site, the convoy can proceed. "To ensure transportation safety, we conduct road surveys before traveling." Cao Yuhao told reporters that based on the data of the length, width, and height of the transported goods, the recorder will bring measurement tools to predict whether the goods can pass and how to pass, and consider various road conditions in advance. Sometimes, they need to walk two or three times repeatedly. In addition, vehicle inspection is also crucial. Before departure, the staff will also put up a ladder, manually measure the height of the vehicle and cargo, make height limit poles based on this, and tie eye-catching red ribbons. "If the height limit pole cannot pass through, you need to lower the height of the vehicle and be careful when passing," Cao Yuhao said. Not long after, I entered the county town of Jiajiang. On the road, when encountering a power line blocking the way, the staff got off the car and raised the power line to assist in the passage of goods; Passing through the pedestrian overpass, the hydraulic lifting function of the bridge body was activated, rising from the usual height limit of 5 meters to 7.5 meters... After nearly 20 hours, the three tanks finally arrived at their destination steadily. From short distance transportation within the province to cross provincial transportation of goods, from power equipment to petrochemical tanks... Over the years, Cao Yuhao has had to escort large items on average two or three times a month. "Repeatedly studying the handling methods of each large item and constantly being vigilant about potential risks along the way is not easy. But when we think that we are escorting one large piece of equipment after another, and they will rush to one construction project after another, everything is worth it!" Cao Yuhao said with a smile. (Lai Xin She)