One of the things we pride ourselves on at Vic’s is our ability to overcome difficult and unexpected challenges while still delivering the best results on time and within budget.

That was exemplified when we made our way to Marquette, Michigan. Some offload projects come by railway. This one came by ocean transport. The task before us was to transport three Wartsila 18V50DF engines, each weighing in at 656,313 pounds, for the Marquette Board of Light & Power’s new 50MW power plant.

During the early stages of the project it was determined that Marquette did not have suitable ports for the ocean transport to offload the engines. But with months to prepare, our unmatched engineering and pre-planning team came up with a solution. The barge landed on the beach in front of a temporary unloading platform built by Vic’s. The engines were then transported off the barge using 14 axle lines of a self-propelled H Goldhofer trailer.

To protect culverts and a six-foot wide steam tunnel we built 12 temporary bridges. We returned a month later again with the 14 line H Goldhofer trailer, along with a 500-ton gantry system and a hydraulic slide track, and set the engines and generators in their final positions.

The combination of Vic’s superior engineering, project management and highly skilled operators saw to it that the project safely and efficiently overcame roadblocks in order to deliver the massive engines and generators within the customer’s timeline.