The Roll-on/Roll-off quay

© SPW

 

The Roll-on / Roll-off quay (" ro-ro " for heavy consignments) at Seraing port is an infrastructure of particular importance, as it allows a road convoy direct access to a vessel. This quay is used for loading or unloading heavy wide gauge equipment via special vessels called " ro-ro ships ". This loading system means the vehicle carrying the item to be transported is placed in a boxed barge with a drop-down door or brought on a broad pontoon.

 

Various consignments are loaded and unloaded at this site, such as heavy, cumbersome and indissociable parts that weight up to 1,200 tonnes and have gauges much wider than those allowed by road or rail.

Here are a few examples of the loads transported in the Liege region :

• steam generators (power generators) weighing 485 tonnes plus a 120 tonnes trailer, with the largest dimension of the boiler's indissociable parts exceeding 20 metres ;
• 300 tonnes reactors;
• turbines and transformers ;
• petrochemical equipment weighing 300 to 350 tonnes ;
• structural members for engineering works and for bridge cranes weighing 100 to 200 tonnes.