It was a tight squeeze but she's through
The Terra Marique has passed through Gainsboroughs's historic road bridge. While it was a tight squeeze the 2211 tonnes vessel passed through just after 14 00 yesterday.
The Department for Transport grant aided vessel the Terra Marique is carrying a 270 tonne transformer, which is to be delivered on Sunday to EDF Energy's Cottam Power station in Nottinghamshire. Loads such as this load would traditionally have be transported around 60 miles on the road network, travelling at speeds of between 5 and 12 miles an hour and causing significant disruption to road-users. In this instance, use of the river Trent will mean that road movement is entirely avoided
By passing through the centre arch of the historic structure, we believe the Terra Marique which is 16.5m in width, has become the largest vessel ever to navigate the river Trent upstream of Gainsborough.
Tim West, Research and Corporate Affairs and spokesmen for Robert Wynn & Sons commented:
"We have passed another significant milestone in the short operational life of the Terra Marique; working with Associated British Ports and British Waterways we have been able to facilitate this record-breaking movement that we hope has served to highlight the freight carrying potential of the Trent."
Katherine Wilson, Marketing & Communications Manager for British Waterways further commented:
“British Waterways is delighted that the River Trent has been used to move this record breaking freight load – particularly as it means that motorists have been spared the delays that carrying this by road would inevitably have caused. We believe that as much as 3.5% of all freight currently carried on roads could be transported by water instead – meaning a lot fewer traffic jams!
Large freight movements can be complex and require careful planning, and we work closely with our partners to achieve this vision for the future of freight, while balancing this with the needs of British Waterways wide variety of leisure users.”
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