CONCORDE GIVES ROBERT WYNN & SONS A FLYING START
Robert Wynn & Sons' new vessel the Terra Marique will receive her first cargo, Concorde G-BOAA, this weekend (Sunday, 4th April) at Isleworth in west London, before commencing her journey down the river Thames en route to the aircraft's final destination, the national Museum of Flight in East Fortune, Scotland.
The Terra Marique was constructed with the aid of an £8.5million grant from the Department for Transport in order to make water transport of abnormal loads a viable option. The movement of the Concorde on the river Thames illustrates the potential to transfer large disruptive loads, as well as other freight, to the UK's larger inland waterways and coastal shipping routes.
The vessel is unique in the European shipping market and uses state of the art technology to enable it to offload onto a wide range of quay heights and minimally prepared riverbanks and beaches. Measuring 80.0m long and 16.5m wide with an operating draft of 2.75m, the vessel has a gross tonnage of 2786 tonnes and a deadweight of 2211 tonnes. Its design has drawn on knowledge and experience from the shipping and heavy transport industries and will enable unprecedented penetration of the UK's inland waterway network for the largest abnormal loads.
The Concorde transportation project is one of the most complex ever undertaken and has been planned in detail by independent transportation consultants Wynns Limited over a 6-month period. During the movement, Robert Wynn & Sons Ltd. will act as subcontractor to Abnormal Load Engineering Ltd, who are the main contractor to National Museums of Scotland.
By moving the Concorde on the river Thames, rather than around the M25 to Tilbury Docks, a lengthy road journey and the potential for major traffic disruption will be avoided.
The Highways Agency issue permits for the road movement of large 'abnormal' loads, such as the Concorde (which will have dimensions of 54.0m long x 8.6m wide x 5.5m high when transported). Since 2000, the Government has insisted that water transport is employed wherever feasible in order to minimise the disruption generated when abnormal loads are transported on the road network.
Peter Wynn, Managing Director of Robert Wynn & Sons Ltd, commented:
"The movement of Concorde G-BOAA along the river Thames demonstrates the potential of waterway transport. Over the next 20 years the Terra Marique will enable many large loads to be transported by water, reducing the disruption they can cause when moved by road. Not all water movements will be as high profile as Concorde but, as more freight is transferred to the UK's coastal and inland waterways, we hope that motorists will see a noticeable reduction in road congestion."
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