Dubbo residents watched in disbelief yesterday as a huge generating transformer road train carefully made its way through the city.
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The generator was towed by three prime movers in front and had two at the rear.
The entire length of the Lampson road train was 120 metres long and weighed 549 tons in total.
Lampson’s spokesperson Bill Quintal said the generator was en route to Delta Power Station at Wallarawang. He said the extra trucks were required due to the generator’s weight.
He said the generator alone weighed 220 tons and was classified overweight and over dimensional.
The generator began its journey in China and was shipped to Australia where it was delivered to Port Kembla.
From Port Kembla it was loaded onto the truck’s trailer bed. It left the coast at 1pm last Sunday for the 1000-kilometre stretch.
The generator alone was valued at 10 million dollars, with transport and travel incidentals racking up another $400,000.
“It’s not great on diesel, I have to admit,” Mr Quintal said.
“We get about 850 metres to the litre.”
He said normal risks associated with the journey were flat tyres and delays caused by trains.
Mr Quintal said the company had to get special permits from Roads and Maritime Services before they could commence transportation.
Police escorts were also required with three police vehicles leading and following the entourage from Port Kembla.
Strict travel times have slowed the road train down.
Mr Quintal said they were unable to travel between sunset and sunrise because of visibility problems on country roads.
“We have to adhere to the correct definitions of sunrise and sunset that are listed in the daily newspapers,” he said.
Mr Quintal said the road train was expected on site in Wallarawang, Sunday.
