Panalpina - Methanol Column Transport

This past July 2014, I did an interesting commercial photo assignment depicting the heavy transport of three huge petrochemical distillation columns from the Port of Huston at Barbour's Cut to a petrochemical facility in Bayport, Texas. I was contracted by Panprojects - a division of the international, Swiss-based, shipping company Panalpina - to photographically document the transport of three distillation columns in excess of 200 ft. long X 30 ft. in diameter and weighing around 400 tons each. The formidable task of moving over-sized equipment, such as this, over city streets required careful and detailed coordination between 100 transport specialists from 5 or 6 companies, including local utilities over city streets in a day and night operation lasting several days. The whole operation was engineered, coordinated, and facilitated by Panprojects which required complex planning to maneuver over such obstacles such as numerous power-lines, street-lights at road intersections, highway over-passes, and bridges. All in all: it was a difficult task, but also masterfully accomplished through the efforts of of many skilled and knowledgeable people. It seemed to me a veritable symphony of complex skill and organization.