Truckers need to handle incredibly unwieldy loads sometimes, and watching the logistics of maneuvering something huge with a delicate touch is a sight to behold. A recent video from earlier this month reminded me of how complicated our trucking can get.
These truckers out of Sumterville, Florida, are with Buchanan Hauling & Rigging and they are transporting a tolling gantry, which are those large structures stretched across toll roads that automatically track and charge your vehicle to basically toll booths. To say it seems challenging is an understatement.
It’s not something you see everyday and must take intense logistics to get something so huge from A to B. The truck is 14 feet wide with its load, making it two feet wider than an average freeway lane. The gantry is an astounding 71.6 meters long or 235 feet. This entire ballet would be impossible without the many support vehicles helping to block off traffic along the way while this giant is navigated across multiple lanes for an almost impossible turn.
I did not expect to get sucked into oversized truck videos this afternoon but the YouTube channel, Big Rig Videos, is full of jaw-dropping feats of transportation. Like this 201-ton, 294-foot Demethanizer Tower Superload transported by Lone Star Transportation on the final leg of it journey to Texas all the way from Dubai. This one is incredible because of the way the large load is balanced on two separate beds. The driver just describes its motions as “a complex series of valves.”
Honestly, with all those logistics and the ‘what ifs’ should something go wrong, it seems like it would be easier to build something so big on the damn spot where it will one day stand, or at least transport it in pieces. But hey, I’m no trucking expert, I’m just a big fan.
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