Here we GO AGAIN!
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Tribulations continue for troubled transformer
APS unit stuck at Twentynine Palms
Emily Bittner and Jonathan J. Higuera
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 27, 2004 12:00 AM
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. -Troubles continue to plague the trip of a giant APS transformer through the high desert of California.
The trailer hauling the 380,000-pound transformer was stuck Monday night in a remote area near Twentynine Palms after being delayed two days after a weekend breakdown on a steep grade near Victorville. The rig was unable to negotiate another steep grade, and part of the trailer caught on the pavement of California Route 62 about 8 p.m.
Terri Kasinga, California Department of Transportation spokeswoman, said the road would be closed to traffic until repairs were completed, most likely after daylight. The steel I-beams under the trailer were touching the asphalt, but the rig was moving so slowly that neither the transformer nor the road was damaged, she said.
The multivehicle caravan had picked up steam after a combination of trailers were used to maneuver the load through Victorville and 15 miles of treacherous roadway outside the town early Monday. The transformer, hauled by a 282-foot-long truck, then traveled uneventfully from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., covering about 65 miles, before breaking down.
Until the mishap, it had been expected to cross into Arizona this morning. Twentynine Palms is about 110 miles from Parker, where the rig is expected to enter the state.
The caravan attracted onlookers in the small California towns it traveled through.
Shaun Snyder, 34, pulled off to the side of the road to watch the vehicles inching past his neighborhood in Joshua Tree about 3:45 p.m. Monday.
He wasn't surprised the rig couldn't negotiate the curves coming out of Victorville.
"You've got to be kidding me," he said about the trip to Phoenix. "What's that going to take, a month? That's going to be a mission."
As the transformer limps its way to the Valley, it's natural to wonder if other modes of transportation would have gotten it here more quickly.
APS says no.
The load could not have been shipped by air or rail because it is too large and awkward, they said.
"This particular unit was too big for rail transport," APS spokesman Mark Fallon said. "With the schedule we wanted to keep, it didn't make sense to go overland (tractor-trailer) from the Spokane area to here. It was much more expeditious to go combination barge and land transport."
Part of the problem is the transformer cannot be laid on its side, like some transformers. Because it sits more than 17 feet high, it was almost 4 feet taller than any of the available cargo transport planes.
The transformer was shipped by sea from the Port of Tacoma, Wash., to Long Beach, Calif.
APS contracted with Precision Heavy Haul, Inc., a Tolleson company that specializes in heavy hauling, to move the transformer from Long Beach to Phoenix. It is the same company that moved the 18-ton honeycomb mirror to the Mount Graham International Observatory near Safford last year.
That job earned the company the 2003 Transportation Job of the Year by the Specialized Carriers Riggers Association.
American Heavy Moving and Rigging of Chino, Calif., was called in to supply the hydraulic trailer needed to keep the transformer stable over the steep grades.
Calls to the Tolleson company were referred to APS, but industry veterans said a job that size requires keeping the structure vertical.
"Sometimes you have to custom-build," said Bob Pierson, a heavy haul manager for Phoenix-based Southwest Industrial Rigging.
In March, Salt River Project shipped a 285,000-pound transformer from Austria to Williams Gateway Airport in Mesa in the world's largest airplane, a Russian Antonov 225.
The company had a couple of large transformers damaged last year after they were shipped by rail.
"We have some concerns moving a transformer via rail," SRP spokesman Scott Harelson said. In those cases, the company determined the transformers had suffered 5 to 7 g's of impact. A g is a measure of acceleration.
"We'll continue to move by rail only as long as we have a dedicated rail car," he said.
Saturday's accident involving the transformer did not lead to any damage that would make it a safety hazard, APS officials said.
Information was unavailable about the extent of damage from Monday's mishap.
The transformer's impact recorders, which measure the amount of jarring during a trip, showed the transformer on Saturday suffered less than one-half of the impact that would have raised concerns.
"That's why our engineers went there to check," APS spokesman Damon Gross said. "Everything was well within what it can take as far as impact.
"When it comes into town, we'll conduct an array of tests just like we would do in any circumstance."
The impact equaled about .5 g's, the company said. The transformer's manufacturer, Sumitomo Corp., informed the utility company that it would take at least 3 g's for it to present a problem, APS officials said.
The transformer is in the third leg of a journey that started July 11 from a substation near Kent, Wash., owned by the Bonneville Power Administration, a Pacific Northwest utility company. In exchange for the spare transformer, APS will buy Bonneville another transformer.
In another development, a replacement transformer at the Deer Valley substation was able to begin operations about 3 a.m. Monday.
Bringing this transformer online will bring the substation back to full capacity. APS customers in the areas of Seventh to 67th avenues from Olive to Dynamite and from 67th to 115th avenues from Northern to Union Hills no longer are considered to be in a "high risk" area.
