Barclay Mowlem, which contracted to construct the long conveyor system,
is planning for completion near the end of 2006.
When completed, the conveyor system will be 20.6 km long and with its
continuous rubber belt curving around land contours and passing over creeks
it has been complex engineering project.
Coal comes straight out of the Curragh North mine to the ROM, then to
the primary, secondary and tertiary crushers, before loading onto the
conveyer system that will find its place in the record books.
The rubber belt, which is 900mm, wide will carry approximately 2,600
tonnes per hour and is powered by three large drive stations - one at
the head and two along the line. At one point, where the conveyor crosses
over the Blackwater Creek, a 200m long gantry had to be constructed to
bridge the creek. Although dry for many months of the year the waterway
can be a strong torrent at the height of the wet season.
Local expertise solves problems
Local Blackwater expertise was used to fabricate the various sections
of the 4m square gantry for the creek crossing - two of the sections being
25m long and three each 50m long.
Sub contractor, BOOM Logistics, out of its local Blackwater depot then
introduced an ingenious system for transporting the gantries out to the
site where big BOOM hydraulic cranes were able to reach out over the wide
waterway and lift the sections into position.
"It could have been a time consuming exercise manoeuvring and transporting
the long sections, particularly the 50m sections, each 32 tonnes …
especially when negotiating corners near the rail crossing in the town,"
said Darren Jones of BOOM Logistics, who co-ordinated the transport.
BOOM had to be spot on time as they had the rail line closing for only
15 minutes … if they missed the appointed time it would be a wait
of ten days before another closing could be arranged.
"Where BOOM's transport system also excelled was on the mine site's
haul roads, we only required them to be out for 40 minutes.
"Without our special, in fact unique, low profile powered jinkers
it would have been difficult and more time consuming, as unpowered jinkers
cannot manoeuvre as well and turn corners as tightly … they tend
to drag across corners whereas our powered low profile jinker, which fitted
under the gantry section, (see photo) can manoeuvre the trailing end around
the corners by actually pushing out," added Matt Turner of BOOM's
Blackwater depot.
BOOM has two of the special low profile engine powered jinkers, which
can be driven from the low slung cab. They were built in BOOM's Toowoomba
workshops and have saved customers thousands of dollars with more time
efficient transporting of long loads such as bridge girders, and in this
case, the conveyor gantries.
The jinkers were adapted from a CLR Mack chassis, are powered by a 210hp
engine and are rated for an 81 tonne load. They are fully certified with
ROPS protection, 80 tonnes downward pressure and 60 tonne sideways pressure.
As it turned out, they were the vital piece of equipment for the exercise.
At the creek crossing, BOOM had two cranes, each 200 tonnes, from their
local Blackwater depot, which were able to work at maximum radius to place
the centre sections of the gantry in position.
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The 35 tonne gantry that forms part of a
span for the creek crossing for the
world's longest continuous conveyer,
being transported by BOOM Logistics' prime
mover up front and the special powered
jinker at the rear, which is enables far better manoeuvrability than
a trailing jinker.
The unique powered jinker with a rated
load capacity of 81 tonnes … it pushes
the load around tight corners …
doesn't drag as trailing
jinkers tend to do.
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