zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Trucks
/
Watch Trucks Tow a Really Big Thing That's Heavier Than the Statue of Liberty
Watch Trucks Tow a Really Big Thing That's Heavier Than the Statue of Liberty-July 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:13:09

It’s called a “Propylene-Propane Splitter” distillation column, and its job will be to help make plastic out of propane. It weighs nearly 900 tons, stands over 300 feet tall, and just began its journey from Edmonton, Alberta to a nearby suburb on the backs of specialized trailers towed by diesel commercial trucks. Behold the amazing sight of this enormous convoy.

There’s a big project underway in Canada called the Heartland Petrochemical Complex, and its purpose—according to , the company building it—will be to “convert locally sourced, low-cost propane into 525,000 tonnes per year of polypropylene” plastic.

Yes, “locally sourced” is a term now being used for plastic.

Part of the over $2.5 billion being spent on the project went to Dacro Industries in Edmonton, who spent basically all of 2018 building a huge “splitter” out of carbon steel. Now that it’s done, the distillation column is being transported from Dacro to the Heartland Petrochemical complex about 30 miles away. And that’s no easy task. Just watch these trucks tow the huge specialized equipment on heavy duty trailers:

Viralhog, who posted the video above to , writes in its description that the short journey began on Sunday night and will take four days. Canadian news site CBC’s the full route, and quotes the Alberta government as saying the splitter is the “heaviest load ever to travel on Alberta’s highway network,” and that—including all vehicles involved—the operation will span almost 590 feet in length, over 31 feet in width, and over 42 feet in height, taking up both lanes and the shoulder of a two-lane highway.

If you’re curious to know how such an object, which weighs about 882 tons and stands 318 feet tall, is being towed, check out the beginning of the video below by Inter Pipeline’s contractor, Mammoet, which specializes in moving huge loads:

The video describes a “conventional method” of towing enormous objects, and that appears to be what’s being used in Alberta. It involves pushing and pulling modular trailers using prime movers like diesel trucks. The trailers, which are possibly built by German company , appear to be able to steer, much like the one shown below:

It’s hard to tell exactly which trailers are being used, or if they’re self-propelled in any way, but the trucks appear to be , which Mammoet mentions on its website as among the prime movers it uses for such operations.

And what an impressive operation it is. Unless you’re stuck in traffic because of it, in which case, perhaps “impressive” isn’t the right term.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Trucks
There Was Once A Glorious Compact Chevy ZR2 Truck
There Was Once A Glorious Compact Chevy ZR2 Truck
Those who saw the meteoric rise of through the 2010s and onward probably associate the badge with the . The was Chevy’s halo midsize truck when it was released in 2016, but the ZR2 badging goes all the way to the when Chevy made the S-10 ZR2. It’s gnarly....
Jul 13, 2025
Porsche Built A 911 With Portal Axles To Go Where Unimogs Can't Reach
Porsche Built A 911 With Portal Axles To Go Where Unimogs Can't Reach
No car has ever driven at higher altitude than this 992-generation Porsche 911 Carrera 4S with portal axles. On Saturday the Porsche crew, led by racing driver Romain Dumas, reached the highest peak of the west ridge of the Ojos del Salado volcano in Chile, . That’s the tallest...
Jul 13, 2025
Deer Flies Directly Into Pickup As Its Prospective Buyer Arrives
Deer Flies Directly Into Pickup As Its Prospective Buyer Arrives
No square inch of the Northeast is safe from deer, as video out of New Jersey shows. A deer, tearing through the suburbs, managed to leap over a Pontiac Vibe and Honda CR-V before landing on the bedside of a 2007 Chevy Silverado — just as a prospective buyer arrived...
Jul 13, 2025
Ford Robbed Us Of The Old Four-Door Ranger To Give Us The Explorer Sport Trac
Ford Robbed Us Of The Old Four-Door Ranger To Give Us The Explorer Sport Trac
By definition, a big truck like a or struggles to be small. Even in its smallest, most trucky configuration — a two-door single cab — a full-size truck is relatively large and comes with a sizable bed for hauling cargo. But a small truck like the third-generation can do...
Jul 13, 2025
The Nissan Navara Was The Overdue Frontier We Deserved A Decade Ago
The Nissan Navara Was The Overdue Frontier We Deserved A Decade Ago
gets dunked on for letting models like the languish for years. But, the truck saw a model update well before the release of the , which is mechanically much like an with a design. Outside of the U.S., the successor to the second-generation Frontier came in 2014 with the...
Jul 13, 2025
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Is The Hybrid Truck America Probably Needs
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Is The Hybrid Truck America Probably Needs
In addition to the all-electric , the truck brand announced this week that it will also release a engine gasoline-powered hybrid version of its electric pickup, called Ramcharger. The goal here is to use the V6 engine as a generator for the electric powertrain when the 92 kWh battery...
Jul 13, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved