Four MacGREGOR semi-submersible linkspans will play a key role in a transportation scheme for shipping logs from forest to mill for the Brazilian paper industry, handling traffic flows almost around-the-clock

A logistics system for transporting logs from the Brazilian forest to the paper mill by barge calls for the installation of MacGREGOR semi-submersible linkspans at the loading and discharge terminals. The contract was awarded by the Brazilian paper company Aracruz Cellolose SA.

The ambitious project will see the construction of a new export terminal at Caravelas, about 800km north of Rio de Janeiro on the coastal edge of the forest plantation, with a quay capable of mooring a pair of push barges. The barges will be loaded with logs by front loaders each with a total weight of 42 tonnes via two MacGREGOR linkspans measuring 25m long x 10m, widening to 13m at the barge end.

Another two MacGREGOR linkspans will be installed at the discharge terminal in Barra do Riachos, some 500km north of Rio de Janeiro, where a basin will be excavated. Unloading will be executed by front loaders over a linkspan measuring 16m x 10m, widening to 13m at the barge end. The logs will then be transported to a storage area close to the new Fiberline C processing area.

A semi-submersible construction will allow the linkspans to follow the movement of the barge and the tidal variation without the need for adjustment during the entire loading/unloading procedure. An intensive operational schedule will create traffic flows over the linkspan decks for 22 hours a day.

Experience from earlier installations will benefit the Brazilian project, the linkspan design being similar in principle to the system supplied by MacGREGOR to support Stena's HSS 1500 high speed passenger/freight catamaran ferries in Irish Sea and English Channel service.