AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

PLANE SA LING

5th February 2004
Page 56
Page 57
Page 56, 5th February 2004 — PLANE SA LING
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The French have spent more than £120m on upgrading 240km of road— for just a few abnormal loads a year, Miles Brignall explains.

Sometimes you just have to admire the French. Sure, they have their own way of doing things and we haven't always seen eye-to-eye in the past, but when it comes to transport infrastructure they are the masters.

A good example of their expertise is happening down in the south-west of the country. Faced with the tricky problem of transporting huge pieces of aircraft from Bordeaux to the Airbus factory in Toulouse they have, with typical Gallic pragmatism.simply selected the best available road and upgraded it to accept abnormal loads.

Easy really, except that in the UK and most other parts of Europe it simply wouldn't happen —certainly not without years of public inquiries and huge protests from environmental campaigners. Vast avenues of trees have been chopped down,several houses have been demolished and a huge road-widening project has been undertaken — all with minimal local opposition.What was there has simply been steamrollered out of the way.

The project One of the reasons for the lack of significant opposition to the project is that vast numbers of jobs depend on it The economy of Toulouse, and to a certain extent the region, is greatly dependent on the Airbus factory, situated next to the city's Blagnac airport.And the future of that factory rests on the success of the A380 super-plane that has prompted the road's upgrading.

Airbus constructs planes in sections around Europe and brings the parts together in Toulouse for assembly. For exarnple,the wings for the A380 are manufactured in Broughton, North Wales, and moved by sea to Bordeaux. There they will be placed on barges and floated down the river Garonne to Langan; specially constructed trailers will carry them the final 240km to Toulouse.

The thing that makes these loads so challenging is not their weight but their size. Each load is 53m long, 8m wide and 14m high.The artics will travel in convoys of six, also carrying fuselages and cockpits.

The road One of the most remarkable things about this plan is that the road that has been upgraded is for the most part a single-carriageway which passes through the centre of several small towns (the equivalent of an A-road in the UK).

Overhead wires and street furniture have had to be relocated to allow the 14m-high convoys to pass unhindered. Several houses had to be compulsorily purchased and knocked down and.most contentiously of all, thousands of trees have been cut down.

This is an area of France that is known for its long avenues of trees, originally planted by Napoleon to cover marching troops from the heat of the midday sun.There were already calls to cut down many of these trees for safety reasons, and Airbus has got around some of the environmental objections by pledging to replace each lost tree with two saplings.

Several sections of the road with sharp bends or tight roundabouts have been completely rebuilt, and long-awaited improvements have been put in.The planners have also built several giant lay-bys where the convoys will sit during the day they will travel overnight, taking three nights to make the journey.

None of this has been cheap; the reported cost of the entire upgrade is €171m.Airbus has contributed 57%. with the rest of the bill being picked up by the French taxpayer. When you add in port upgrades and other peripheral work the bill rises to more than €190m.

ruirilitsIs

een cut own

Airbus has, to some extent, bought off the mayor of each community that the road passes through by using the upgrade to make road improvements that might otherwise have taken years to complete.

Mal run

Although not all the work has been completed, the first trial run took place last November. Carrying life-size mock-ups in place of expensive aircraft parts, two "convois exceptionels" left the harbour of Langon and spent just over two weeks wending their way to Toulouse.They travelled very slowly through the towns (at night), giving engineers and council workers time to move signposts and deal with unforeseen problems.

This being one of the most rural areas of France the convoys attracted large crowds, especially in the towns. In spite of the oftenlate hour people gathered to see them pass. with many congregating around what they perceived to be difficult stretches and roundabouts. It seems there's not much else to do in the evenings! Although they faced some very tight squeezes at times, both trucks disappointed the crowds by completing the journey without major mishaps.

In fact, the most dramatic part of the journey happens on the river.The barges have to travel under several bridges near Bordeaux that were constructed in 1822.Their height means that the loads will fit only at low tide, and some locals have suggested that this is the most precarious part of the whole operation. • Elf157111711

Tags


comments powered by Disqus