In the middle of the night Mammoet started the transport of a 160t Boeing 747 over the farm land fields, ditches and roads between the taxi ways at the end of runway 36 C, the Zwanenburg runway at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, to a place positioned ready for the next phase of the journey crossing an eight lane motorway.
The aircraft has been bought from KLM by the Holiday airline Corendon. It will be placed next to their hotel near Schiphol Airport. KLM had operated the aircraft from new in June 1989 since when it had a total of 134,279 flying hours.
The aircraft was transported on Mammoet’s SPMTs, using 48 axel lines, 2 times 24 side by side. The total weight was just under 400t. The ground conditions that were to be encountered, farm land that has seen a lot of rain and snow in the past few weeks, were not the ideal surface for such transport. Mammoet has been very busy since November last year planning this lift, and Mammoet Director, Erik Kroes, was there last night answering questions from the many representatives of the press present. A total of 2,600 steel plates had been laid across the farm land which were being relayed from behind the lift to be placed further ahead. Drainage ditches, necessary in this sub sea level polder land, also need to be crossed, bridged by more equipment from Mammoet.
The motorway crossing and crossing a local road close to the hotel will take place on Friday and Saturday nights respectively, causing as little disruption to traffic as possible.
Photo Credit: Corendon & HLN
