MOVING printers' machinery is one of the areas in which
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Vanguard specialises. It moved London's evening paper The Standard to the Daily Express building in Fleet Street. Another area is jobs like fermenting and storage vessels for brewers.
Vanguard moved 14 vessels when Ansells closed its Aston Cross Brewery and William Gayner and Son decided to acquire them.
The job was loaded with problems. The vessels had originally been installed in pairs over a period of five years; each installation, involving as it did the road movement of two 15ft diameter, 80ft high tanks had been considered at the time to be a major feat requiring extensive planning.
During installation, one Aston bank sustained structural damage on at least two occasions when tanks hit it while negotiating a particularly difficult corner. Vanguard was asked to move 10 of the tanks, each with its delicate block fibreglass insulation in place, at once.
The huge tanks were lifted from their foundations using two of Vanguard's heavy cranes, laid over and landed on special cradles to protect the delicate outer skin. For the transport, Vanguard used Broshuis fouraxle individual rear-steer system trailers; their bed can be extended to 17 metres with a capacity of 60 tons. The rea steer mechanism can t switched over to independe controls where the opera walks alongside the trail+ controlling the system, ar individually steers each ax regardless of the direction of tf unit the steering is s accurate that the rear steer a move the trailer round virtual any obstacle.
The move entailed cc operation between Vanguar the Department of Transport ar various police forces wh provided escorts for the tanks c the 160-mile journey. Thre vessels a week were allowed I make the four-day trip along tortuous route that avoided Icy bridges and width restriction On arrival at Attleborough th ten tanks were off-loaded an stored in the open to await th curing of the very heavy-dui foundations when full the te vessels would weigh a impressive 2,500 tons.
The foundations ready Vanguard returned to site witi its equipment and plucked eacl tank from its storage area delivered it to site and raised i vertically with two heavy crane5 When finally positioned, the tei tanks were immediately levellel and fixed down, the latte necessary to avoid a spectacula display of ten-pin bowling in thi face of Norfolk's gale form winter winds.
Despite, says Vanguard, thi: having been the largest tanl movement ever undertaken ir the UK, the whole project we: completed without incident ol mishap.
Lovers of cider and statistic: please note: one man, drinkinc eight pints a day, seven days pa: week, 52 weeks a year woulc take 143 years and 304 days tc empty just one of the neln William Gaymer tanks.