EXTREME WEATHER DEMANDS MORE FROM LOGISTICS MANAGERS

No one Can Foretell the Severity of a Winter Season

f you work in North America, you know winter weather can present severe challenges to delivering major project components to remote jobsites when strict delivery dates are set. While managing the logistics for a multi-billion-dollar oil project in northern Canada in the 1980s, I faced several major incidents during the transportation of four 365-ton refinery columns from Italy to the jobsite. We had just four months when the railroad line for the last 200 miles to the jobsite was frozen to a depth of seven feet and could support the weight of the 12-axle rail cars and loads. If we missed this window there would be a year’s delay.

We had to make sure that everyone involved understood the coordination that would be necessary. For instance, it was difficult to obtain all four rail cars needed for at least two months. Fortunately, we had a good relationship with a railroad that could supply the fourth car.

To make the schedule more difficult the ship delivering the columns to an eastern Canadian port had to

Ideliver two columns, then return to Italy for two more columns. One round trip took 30 days of steaming plus five lay days. While western Canadian ports were much closer to the jobsite, they could not be used because the columns were too large

BY JOHN AMOS

to move through several railroad tunnels. The first ship arrived on time after narrowly avoiding an impending worker strike at the fabricator in Italy during the loadout that would have delayed the ship’s scheduled sailing date.

Upon arrival at the Canadian port a severe storm and freezing weather conditions jeopardized the discharge. The ship could not reach the berth to unload the columns onto the waiting railcars. It took two days to clear ice from the face of the berth and rail tracks on the dock. Excellent teamwork by all involved resulted in only a minor delay.

Rail Strike

The first two columns moved west without incident until two days later when I received a call at 0200 hrs that there had been a railroad accident when one of the columns struck a train moving in the opposite direction. It was caused by the train crew conductors disregarding their written train orders to not pass another train on a curve.

The result: one of the column nozzles struck the other train. There was no derailment, and no one was hurt, but there was a three day delay while the column was examined by