Most Difficult Transport Operations in History

To transport the world's largest telescopic mirror to the mountain's peak, experts and engineers need to do something never done by anyone. We all have seen transportation of medium and small things, from big cargo ships loaded with containers to the world's biggest cargo ship that can easily transport heavy materials. But there are a few things that are not very heavy but have a magnanimous size that neither can be carried on a plane nor a cargo ship. And the biggest challenge is to transport them in one piece.

Today you will learn about four world's largest objects which required months of planning before their transportation. Let's get started. For research and experiment, a lab in Chicago needed the world's largest and most powerful magnet.

The magnet is said to have a width of 50 feet and a weight of 17,000 KG. Although another lab successfully built that magnet, that was the easy part the difficult part was its transportation. The challenge was transporting the world's biggest magnet from Long Island, New York, to this Chicago-based lab. The total distance was 1350 KM. Normally it takes 14 hours to cover this distance by car. But when it comes to the world's biggest magnet, things are not that simple. These routes have heavy traffic and two bridges en route, whose width is only 15 feet. A 50 feet wide object cannot pass through that bridge. It could have been transported by aircraft.

The world's biggest cargo plane is Antonov AN 225 MRIYA, whose length is quite large, but it's cargo section's width is less than 50 feet. Therefore it was not possible to transport it by aircraft. It requires a master plan to transport this giant magnet to its owner. And a single company was not sufficient enough to handle this. Therefore, many companies like FedEx and UPS were included in this challenge.

Who spent several years planning the transport of this magnet? The build of this magnet was so sensitive that a little shock could damage it. And that was why, at first, a steel frame was made. So that during the transport, all the shock can be absorbed by this steel frame after the completion of planning of all the transport companies and law agencies involved in this mission. The mission was initiated on 22 June 2013.

Along with the steel frame, this 62-ton magnet was loaded onto a trolley specially hired. And very slowly, it was transported near the seaport. From there, it was placed onto a flat cargo ship with the help of a heavy-duty crane. And from there, after traveling for one month in the sea, it reached Mobile, Alabama, crossing Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. From there, it reaches Lemont port in Chicago via the Mobile and Mississippi rivers. But its journey was not over yet.

From there, a crane placed the giant magnet onto a trolley. And it headed toward the lab which had purchased it. Fermi lab, the owner of this giant magnet, was 50 km away, which would normally take 40 min to reach. Traffic had to be halted to let this giant magnet pass freely, and with a snail's speed, this convoy reached Fermi labs after three days. This total operation took 35 days, covering a distance of 5000 km. Amazingly, this journey cost $3 million to the owner. After the magnet, tell us the story of transporting the world's largest telescope mirrors. Transporting the world's largest telescopic mirrors built at the University of Arizona to the peak of Monte Cristo was difficult. One mirror weighs 16 tons. The task was to carry two such mirrors to a distance of 200 km. To transport these fragile mirrors, a team of astronomers, engineers, police officers and heavy transport experts was formed. Who spent a whole five months planning this operation.

This 16-ton mirror was enclosed inside a 33-ton case. And with great care, it was loaded onto a 48-wheeler. With the help of police, traffic had to be halted to let this convoy pass freely. The most difficult part of this journey was the 50 KM long mountainous road where the mirrors needed to be kept upright. For that, a hydraulic system was previously installed in the 48-wheeler, which kept the mirror upright while ascending. After flying 11,00,00,000 Km in space for 20 years, this American shuttle made its last journey to a museum in Los Angeles. After retiring from NASA's space shuttle program, this shuttle was carried onto the back of a Boeing 747 to the Los Angeles airport, which was arranged especially for this purpose. The journey from the airport to the museum was already planned. Cutting 400 trees and shutting down dozens of power lines, this 78-ton shuttle was carried through the road of Los Angeles. After completing 20 km in 2 days, the shuttle finally reached the California Science Museum. This is the world's biggest mining machine. This machine is known by the name Bagger 288. This machine is used in coal mines and open-pit mines whose height is 330 Feet and width are larger than two football fields.

This excavator is so large that five drivers operate this at a time. This excavator completed its work on a site in 2001, and now it was time to transport it to another mining site 22 km away. According to engineers, it's quite easy to transport it, because before transport it is disassembled and at the new site it is again assembled. But this time, the situation was quite different. It took 7.5 months to cover just 22 km. Because this time, it not only had to cross the river but it had to cross the highway and railway track too. Special ships were arranged to cross the river, and the land had to be leveled in many places. A total of 70,00,000 ft³ of soil was leveled to transport this excavator. And in many places, the grass had to be laid on the soil so that this excavator could easily pass over it. Traveling 33 ft/m, the excavator ultimately reached its new location. To cover just 22 km, the company had to spend $9,000,000.