Shintech Louisiana invested $1.49 billion to develop a chloralkali and vinyl chloride monomer production plant and expand the Plaquemine PVC manufacturing site. Recently completed, the plant is capable of producing 860,000 tpy of vinyl chloride monomer (the raw material of PVC) and 660,000 tpy of caustic soda.

At Sarens, we were commissioned by our client APTIM to undertake the transport of 24 Pipe Rack Modules from the fabricator yard through Lake Charles to Plaquemine, Louisiana, USA. The maximum dimension of the module was 30.7m x 13.4m x 13.7m. As part of the project Sarens had to: 

• Transport the modules from fabricator’s yard.
• Roll-on the modules in Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA onto the barge and transport to Plaquemine.
• Roll-off the modules in Plaquemine Louisiana USA.
• Transport the modules over the road, 11 miles over 2 days including a sugarcane field.
• Finally set the modules on anchor bolts at the Shintech VCM 3 plant.

The team deployed:

• 100 lines of SPMTs
• Two 76 x 16.5m Barge

The major challenges during the project were:

• Working within the time constraints by the different local authorities and the client.
• Constructing a temporary 24.3m bridge in the sugarcane field to reach the destination.

The Project Manager, Kevin Upton said, “Over 2500 laminated mats were placed in the sugarcane fields to improve the road condition allowing the smooth and safe transport of the modules. Our team did an excellent job and we are so proud of the project.”