

Felbermayr Set for Thousands of Cable Drum Transports for the Südlink Power Line
In the coming years, Felbermayr will carry out around thousands of transports, in both directions, for the Südlink power line which is approximately 800 km long.
The cable link will deliver Windstrom from the north to the south of Germany when completed.
Felbermayr started the historic transport project at the beginning of last year on behalf of the internationally active logistics experts from
- Schenker Deutschland AG,
- deugro (Deutschland) Projekt GmbH
- Rhenus Project Logistics GmbH
“What we are achieving here surpasses everything I have seen so far in my career,” says an impressed Holger Kunz. The experienced logistician has been working in the heavy transport industry for almost two decades. He has been the manager of the Felbermayr branch in Memmingen for over three years. “We are not only talking about an immense number of transports, but also about the complex coordination with a wide variety of partners – from the project sponsor to the cable manufacturers and finally an unprecedented density of transport permits,” says Kunz, summarizing the mega project.

In the coming years, Felbermayr will carry out several thousand transports for the approximately 800-kilometer-long power lines. This will enable the large amounts of wind power to be delivered from the north to the south of Germany in the future.
Specifically, since the beginning of the year, the high-voltage direct current cables for Südlink have been rolled up on cable drums and transported to strategic storage locations along the route. The cables were produced by Prysmian, the world market leader in the field of energy and telecommunications cables and systems. In both projects, these are then transported from the intermediate storage facilities to the unwinding points and unwound. By the time the routes are completed, the Felbermayr team will have carried out around 3,000 transports, including the return transport of the empty cable drums.

The unwinding process has already begun at several unwinding locations in Germany. Efficient use of personnel and technology enables smooth operations at several construction sites at the same time.
The cable drums are delivered by inland and sea-going vessels from Prysmian’s production facilities for innovative cable technology in France to Germany. “From there, we take over,” says Kunz. The transport team from Memmingen has prepared for this with three different transport configurations. “The spatial geometry of the route is crucial for the selection of our means of transport,” says Kunz.

Brand new axle lines from the manufacturer Goldhofer as well as the powerful 4-axle tractors from the MAN TGX 41.640 brand are used for the transports.
In order to transport the cable drums, which weigh up to 100 tons, the team uses different modular axle lines depending on the route conditions. “If we have enough space, we drive with a platform saddle. We counter height problems with a boiler bridge and in particularly narrow road conditions, we can reduce our transport length to an absolute minimum with the help of self-propelled vehicles,” reveals Kunz. The axle lines of the manufacturer Goldhofer are pulled by the company’s own 4-axle tractor units of the MAN TGX 41.640 brand.

Due to the weight of up to 100 tons, securing the load on the coils is particularly important. The Felbermayr Engineered Solutions division developed a special device for this purpose. This was also manufactured in-house at Felbermayr.
In order to be able to unwind the cables from the drums into the routes, the Felbermayr team teamed up with a well-known supplier and together developed an unwinding device. “We designed the device so that it fits all vehicle types, which gives us maximum flexibility,” says Kunz. But that’s not all. Another special feature is already on the vehicle itself: “Until now, such devices were always mounted on a subframe. We were able to leave this out because our modular axles are already equipped with one,” says Kunz. Under the supervision of a supervisor from Felbermayr, the drums are then unwound and the cables laid in the cable trench.

Courtesy of TenneT TSO GmbH and TransnetBW GmbH
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