Technical Challenges Associated with Dry Transportation
Less than twenty years ago the first jack-up drilling rig was transported "piggyback" on a submersible barge. Dry transportation of extremely large and heavy cargoes has developed rapidly ever since. Specialized ships have been designed and built; records (with regard to weight, size or complexity of the transport) have regularly been broken. In this paper, the development of heavy-lift transportation is outlined, followed by a review of present heavy-lift design criteria. Technical challenges associated with several types of heavy-lift cargoes such as jack-up/semisubmersible rigs, dry docks, jackets, tension leg platforms, and modules are discussed. The importance of the transportation engineer's involvement in the preliminary project engineering stage is emphasized.