The Roof Project was part of a larger construction project of which FD Platinum carried out various critical international shipping elements. The challenge: to get an oversized carbon fiber roof manufactured in Dubai to Europe and in place on site without a hitch…
Not the Apple campus…
When we’re talking oversized carbon roof, think Apple campus but more like an airport terminal and you’re not far wrong. This project was for a private client so we won’t share specific photos for confidentiality reasons.
Our key contacts were the architect and the manufacturer, as well as the client themselves and the myriad of transport suppliers involved in such a move.
The Challenge…
Like handling an oversized piece of fine art or furniture, the sections of this carbon fiber roof were unique, extremely valuable and very delicate. The material is light weight relative to its size and the sections resembled very long wings of an aeroplane, so you can imagine the importance of shipping and haulage specifications to ensure safe transit.
Narrow and rural European roads made the journey more interesting with trees en route near the property presenting a major challenge because of the height involved.
The Solution
Each section required bespoke packing to protect it consisting of an aluminium frame and protective wrapping. This prepared the cargo for transport by road using specialist haulage to the port in Dubai. Due to the nature of the size, normal shipping containers and open top containers were out of the question so space on a special cargo brokerage boat was required.
Once the cargo arrived at the destination port, the fun on the roads began because the road network is designed for much smaller vehicles on narrower lanes than in Dubai. We arranged three special extending trailers with rear wheel drive to negotiate the route.
On a dry run in advance we used a mock-up on a trailer of the expected cargo size to ensure safe passage when the genuine articles arrived and we organized tree surgeons to clear the head height by cutting back overhanging branches.
Once the shipment was nearing the property under special convoy we arranged road closures to facilitate final delivery on the narrowest of public lanes.
