To Get to the Other Side

This paper discusses engineering design ideas employed by P. Wirzius Heavy Assembly GmbH of Hinden, Germany, to transport heavy loads across states. In order to find a safe way to cross its bridges, Wirzius enlisted a specialist in getting heavy objects safely to their destinations, Greiner Vehicle Technology, an engineering company based in Neuenstein, Germany. Greiner says it designs systems for transporting large machinery by road or rail. Working with Wirzius, the Greiner company devised a plan to transfer some of the extraordinary vehicle weight to a temporary track system that would channel that part of the load directly to the bridge piers. Engineers working in 3D simulated the system in motion and avoided problems, like collisions, that would otherwise have needed correction later. Crews from Greiner and Wirzius tested the system at the former Butzweilerhof Airport in Ossendorf. A transport vehicle had to transport 295 tons of ballast across a 14S-meter track. The next day, they repeated the test as a demonstration for French motorway authorities.