Moving the Unmovable: 15 Epic Transportation Operations in History

 

When you hear the word transportation, you probably picture movement by a car, truck, plane, or train. However, there are some transport operations that go the extra mile, as they must move some massive objects that cannot be transported by conventional means. Here are the top 15 most epic transportation operations in history.

 

Number 15: A hotel hall

While towing a small trailer home isn't exactly out of the ordinary, if you were to upsize that trailer to an entire hotel, then it would be a whole other story. That's exactly what had to occur with the Hotel Montgomery in San Jose, California.

 

In 1989, the old hotel had been damaged beyond use thanks to an earthquake, and as a result, builders planned to knock it down in 2000 and build a new hotel over it. However, the mayor of San Jose intervened, as he wanted to preserve the old building and return it to its original splendor. Because of this, the 4,800-ton hotel was transported 168 feet east of its original location to ensure safe redevelopment and restoration.

 

This work was done by lifting the hotel up on jacks and using a series of remote-controlled machines to uproot it from its foundations. Thankfully, the move was successful, and the hotel has since been renovated. As a result, it's now fully functional and can be visited today if you happen to be in San Jose.

 

Number 14: NASA spacecraft transports.

Whenever NASA makes a large spaceship or rocket, they face the daunting task of not just launching it but physically transporting the monstrous vehicle to the launch site. This means that NASA must enlist the help of transport systems known as missile crawler transporter facilities to get the job done.

 

In short, these crawlers are a pair of vehicles that NASA uses to transport their spacecraft from their vehicle assembly building to the launch area. Primarily used to transport space shuttles between the years of 1981 and 2011, they weigh in at an incredibly heavy 3,000 tons and need to be operated by 30 engineers, technicians, and drivers in order to reach the launch site. Considering how important they are to NASA's space program, we doubt they'll be replacing them anytime soon.

 

Number 13: Moving military tanks.

Given their size and danger level, transporting heavily armored military tanks is not a simple process. They sometimes have to be transported quickly to respond to crises and have to move across long distances.

 

As a result, the US government typically transports these military weapons using large cargo planes that fly them to their destination, allowing for their almost immediate deployment. Without these planes, modern military operations would be nearly impossible.

 

Number 12: The Hoyt Target.

While 18-wheelers are the vehicle of choice for transporting cars by land, the Hoyt Target is a prime vehicle for transporting cars by sea. The Hoyt Target is the largest car and truck carrier in the world and has a deck space of 71,400 square meters and is 36 meters long.

 

This allows the ship to transport up to 8,500 cars at a time, far surpassing any of its on-land equivalents. Best of all, the ship is environmentally friendly as it features state-of-the-art engineering that allows it to be energy efficient. As a result, we hope that vehicle carriers similar to the Hoyt Target continue to be manufactured for the foreseeable future.

 

Number 11: Nuclear waste.

It goes without saying that nuclear waste is incredibly dangerous, and thus, it takes a special type of container to transport it safely. These carriers are commonly referred to as casks, and they are essentially heavily shielded containers made of high-strength steel.

 

In order to ensure their usability, they are typically tested thoroughly before use and are made to withstand severe environmental conditions such as earthquakes, floodings, and tornadoes to ensure that they never become compromised.

 

In fact, some are reportedly so strong that they could be dropped from a height of 9 meters onto a hard surface with an 800-degree Celsius fire and still remain intact. However, when you further consider that they often are required to last for over a century, this is definitely for the best.

 

Number 10: The AN-124.

The rapid transport of troops and cargo is vital for any military, and the AN-124 is often the vehicle that performs this duty for several different countries. Being one of the largest cargo planes in the world, it truly is an engineering feat.

 

It not only sports 24 wheels to facilitate takeoff but houses a cargo bay that surpasses the size of a basketball court. It's able to carry a maximum load of 150 tons and has a maximum passenger capacity of 88 people. It's clear that it really can fit a small army. To facilitate all of this baggage, it has two main cargo compartments, in addition to numerous smaller compartments in the front and back of the aircraft, with storage space even being available in the nose of the plane.

 

To top it off, the AN-124 has crane winches and other support structures built into it, allowing it to land and unload without external support. As a result, it should come as no surprise that the AN-124 is a valuable asset to any military.

 

Number 9: J.J. the Baby Whale.

While SeaWorld rarely gets any good press these days, this wasn't always the case. In 1997, SeaWorld received widespread praise after they rescued J.J. the baby whale and transported him to one of their parks. The story goes that J.J. was found beached in Los Angeles with no mother nearby and was only a few weeks old and not in good health.

 

As a result, there was a debate as to whether it was more beneficial for the baby to be released back into the ocean or for it to be cared for at SeaWorld. When the rescue crew that found her raised concerns that J.J. would die if released, she was instead put into a massive 24-foot U-Haul truck and quickly transported to SeaWorld San Diego.

 

Once there, she was immediately given fluids to get her blood sugar back to normal and was fed a pancake batter-like mixture that was full of vitamins and other nutrients that the baby whale needed to develop. Then, J.J. was trained in such a way that she could be rehabilitated into the wild. After a 14-month period, she had a clean bill of health and was released back into the wild.

 

Number 8: The Bullwinkle.

Although this may seem rather surprising, it turns out that one of the tallest structures in the world is actually an oil rig named Bullwinkle. It required 10 times more steel than what is found in the Eiffel Tower to build it.

 

Once construction of it was completed in Texas in 1988, the $500 million rig had to be transferred to the Gulf of Mexico. It was eventually transported over 300 nautical miles to its resting location, where its legs were filled with water so that the entire structure would sink to the ocean floor.

 

It's in this spot where Bullwinkle now pumps out about 59,000 barrels of oil on a daily basis. The money coming in from this oil far surpasses what was originally spent to construct Bullwinkle. As a result, this oil rig is undoubtedly an extremely valuable asset.

 

Number 7: A five-ton elephant.

Unsurprisingly, an elephant is not something that is often in need of transportation. However, from time to time, zoos will buy or sell these animals, leading to transport operations being necessary. Luckily for these zoos, there is a company by the name of Steven Fritz Enterprises that specializes in this unique form of transport.

 

After a transport is planned, the company first drops off the temperature control crate that will be used to transport the elephant. Then, the zookeepers train the elephants to enter the crates every day at the same time. This is the time when the actual transportation will take place.

 

Once the animal is comfortable within the crate, the elephant is then loaded inside, and the crate team is mobilized. At this point, the crate is closed, secured, and lifted using a forklift to place it onto the truck. During this time, the forklift only lifts the crate in small two-inch increments to ensure that the elephant doesn't panic, with a mild sedative being on hand if necessary.

 

Once the transport actually begins, the team will consistently stop every two or three hours to check the elephant's vitals, allow it to relax if nervous, and give it snacks. This process is repeated on a continuous basis until the elephant arrives at its destination.

Number 6: The Statue of Liberty.

It goes without saying that the Statue of Liberty is an American icon, gifted to the United States by France in 1885. It was made to symbolize the friendship between the two countries. Yet, in order to actually get it to the United States, it had to be shipped, and as you could imagine, this was no easy task.

 

First, the statue had to be disassembled into more than 360 pieces, and from there, it was then packed into 214 wooden crates, transported across the Atlantic in a cargo ship known as the Acera. Once the statue arrived on June 17th, 1885, reconstruction began immediately. Rather unsurprisingly, the first big piece constructed was the pedestal on which the statue stands, and from there, the other copper and iron pieces were attached together.

 

Finally completed one year after its arrival, President Grover Cleveland then hosted a ceremony publicly recognizing the statue, and ever since, the Statue of Liberty has been an everlasting American symbol.

 

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Number 5: The Prelude FLNG.

While there are many large oil rigs out there, the Prelude FLNG stands out for not only holding the world record for being the largest sea structure in the world but for always being in transport. This is because the Prelude is not just an oil rig but a floating oil rig, which can be moved at will to various locations.

 

The Prelude FLNG is a double-hull vessel that was built in South Korea in 2013, coming in with a length of about 488 meters, a gross tonnage of over 300,000 tons, and a deadweight tonnage of more than 600,000 tons. It is so large that it has five times the displacement of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Constructed using over 260,000 tons of steel, it's moored into the seabed thanks to 16 steel spikes, with each spike measuring in at an incredible 65 meters long and five and a half meters in diameter.

 

While the Prelude is not usually in motion, in June of 2019, it reached a significant milestone when it shipped its first liquefied natural gas cargo to customers in Asia. As a result, despite it costing nearly $12 billion to create and despite Shell estimating that it takes $3.5 billion to produce one million tons of oil, as long as the oil industry remains profitable, we don't see them scrapping the vessel anytime soon.

 

Number 4: The Bagger 288.

Built by German company Krupp, the Bagger 288 is a bucket wheel excavator, allowing companies to practice strip mining, which is the process of clearing out the entire surface of an area looking for coal. It goes without saying that these machines are pretty controversial.

 

Regardless, the Bagger 288, which was contracted by the mining firm Rheinbraun, is certainly a moneymaker. That's because, despite costing over $100 million to make, it can excavate 240,000 tons of coal overburden on a daily basis, which is the equivalent of 2,400 coal wagons.

 

To put it into perspective, that would be like digging a football field that's 98 feet deep. And this is all facilitated thanks to its digging head, which is 70 feet in diameter and has 18 buckets. Each one of these buckets can hold 6.6 cubic meters of material and collects coal thanks to an excavator that's over 720 feet long and 315 feet high.

 

As a result, while not itself being portable, the Bagger 288 facilitates the largest coal transport in the world, leading to thousands of trucks being put on German roads and millions of dollars being pumped into the economy on a daily basis.

 

Number 3: Large MarineVessels.

While ships can typically move from place to place by sea, there are some instances in which marine vessels are so badly damaged that they must be towed to land. Self-propelled modular transporters, also known as SPMTs, use hydraulic capabilities to carry heavy loads, composed of a series of wheels beneath the platform.

 

These wheels are mounted on axles that are separately controlled. Because of the separate operation of these wheels, several SPMTs can be linked together at a time, therefore increasing their weight-carrying capabilities if necessary. Now, there have been a number of cases of SPMTs in action.

 

One notable example came in 2019 when a Chilean research ship known as the Cabo de Hornos was ready to be launched but got caught in a tsunami, resulting in the vehicle dislodging from the harbor and becoming beached and damaged. The boat weighed in at over 3,000 tons, so many understandably believed that it would be unsalvageable.

 

However, an SPMT was able to take on the task in stride and was easily able to transport this vessel back into the water. However, an even more extreme example occurred in 2017. Two years before, a 13,000-ton Chinese ferry capsized and sunk to the bottom of the East China Sea, weighing in at a total of around 17,000 tons thanks to its water weight.

 

The vessel was nothing short of massive, and thus SPMTs were called in to help with the towing job. Being supported by the aid of a 600-axle-long SPMT chain, the ferry was lifted onto them and finally moved to another location in order to be scrapped. If that's not impressive, we don't know what is.

 

Number 2: Island Creation.

For those of you familiar with Dubai's insane luxury attractions, you may have heard of Palm Jumeirah Island, a completely artificial outcrop made of sand and rock. It's designed in the shape of a palm tree and used over 5.5 million cubic meters of rock, 94 million cubic meters of sand, and 700 tons of limestone in its construction.

 

However, while this may seem impressive, this massive transportation operation had a number of negative effects on Dubai's marine ecosystems, most notably, it changed the wave patterns around the country's shore due to the large transportation of the raw materials.

 

This resulted in many studies concluding that marine life was heavily altered, not only due to new species that migrated to the area, but also directly due to the movement of the sand. In fact, it turns out the movement of sand happened at such a rapid pace that many young marine animals were unable to survive the heavy shifts in marine environment.

 

Thus, with these ecosystems in turmoil, Dubai had almost no choice but to call upon the Dubai Coastal Monitoring Program made in order to record changes and implement solutions. Today, the coastal ecology of the nation has almost recovered, and as a result, many new species have migrated to Dubai due to the environmental changes, attracting them back.

 

Number 1: The Troll A Platform Transportation.

The absolute largest feat of structural transportation is that of the massive Troll A Platform, operated by the company Equinor. This platform is not only the tallest but also the heaviest structure moved by man and even holds the world record for being the largest offshore gas platform towed into the North Sea.

 

In 1996, the Troll A has some impressive specs. After all, with an overall height of 1,549 feet and an overall weight of around 683,000 tons, and concrete cylindrical legs that touch the sea floor at 994 feet below the surface, it certainly is massive. Interestingly, these concrete legs are actually continuously slip-formed concrete cylinders and therefore have a number of features.

 

First and foremost, the legs' walls are over one meter thick and made of steel-reinforced concrete that was formed in one continuous pour. Additionally, every leg is divided into three compartments that can act as watertight compartments, with these compartments acting as a safety precaution that may be used if one of the legs is broken and begins to flood.

 

To top these capabilities off, each leg also uses six 40-meter long anchors that hold it by latching into the sea floor at its base, making them extremely secure. As a result, we doubt that the Troll A platform will collapse under its way anytime soon.

 

That's all we have for you today, everyone. Thank you all for reading. Let us know in the comments down below which transportation operation you thought was the most epic. And if you enjoyed this article, don't forget to like and follow so you don't miss out on all of our latest content.