Two companies of the Almajdouie Group recently completed the transportation of nine oversized and heavy evaporators across a 9-km stretch to a water desalination plant in Jubail.

The evaporators were built by Bilfal and deposited at the plant which is part of a major Marafiq independent water and power project. Transportation from the Bilfal factory, where the evaporators were built, to the plant site was jointly handled by Dammam-based Al Majdouie Heavy Lift Transport and Engineering (MHL) and sister firm Almajdouie PSC Heavy Lift (MPSC), based in Bahrain, after the former received the Bilal order.
The Marafiq project will add 2,750 MW of power and 800,000 cu m of water per day of desalinated water to Jubail Industrial City and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
MHL is one of the first Saudi heavylift companies to be certified for ISO-9001 while MPSC is a joint venture between the Almajdouie Group and Italy’s Fagioli Group.
Each of the evaporators weighed 1,810 tonnes, was 65 m long, 22 m wide and 13 m high and they were moved on self-propelled module trailers (SPMTs). Eighty-four axles of the latest generation SPMTs were set in a side-by-side configuration by MPSC general manager Mark Brereton Stuart, an Almajdouie Group statement said.  The route traversed private and public roads.
MPSC has a team of specially trained operators for SPMT operations supported by a highly experienced operations team headed by Ely Coyoca, international operations manager, who has been in the field for the past 25 years and involved in some of the largest moves in the region and beyond. The operations team worked seamlessly with an MHL team in Dammam to jointly provide all the services and expertise required to carry out the transportation of the Bilfal units.
Support also came from MHL’s engineering unit which was involved from the bidding stage till the arrival of final approvals for technical documents. Transportation of the items required route modifications and approvals from the Royal Commission, Saudi Electric Company, Saudi Telecom Co and Marafiq’s underground facilities. Route modifications included trimming of more than 400 trees, removal and replacement of 108 light posts and three sets of signal lights for each move and the “propping up” of three bridges for the duration of the project.
The company started by taking took two days to transport each consignment but later each trip was accomplished in a single day.
Also recently, the Almajdouie Group was involved in the handling of nine other oversized units in the UAE including loadouts. Some of these were manufactured in the UAE and others manufactured in South Korea and brought to the country.
“MPSC is now in the forefront of the movement of super-heavy loads throughout the region. We have been involved in moves of up to 5,000 tonnes and have moved more than 30 items over 1,000 tonnes in the past two years in countries all over the Middle East but particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” the group statement said.
“We have also carried out tower lifts of several vessels up to 1,100 tonnes and are now one of the leaders in the Middle East in our industry. We have expanded our equipment fleet and our profile in the region, leading to the award of key projects that will allow the companies further growth in the coming years.”