The preparation for the transport of a few gigantic storage tanks from Zutphen to Hoogeveen took six months. The family business of Jan Jongsma from Steenwijk was flown in for the special transport to the DOC dairy factory.
“We received the first request for this transport in July last year and we started actively planning from September,” says Joery Jongsma, who works with his brother Kris in the company founded by father Jan.
Their company is the only company in Europe that specializes in transporting tanks. It is therefore not surprising that they were approached to carry out this transport. The largest tank that arrived in Hoogeveen yesterday weighs 27,000 kilos, is 5.80 meters wide and has a capacity of half a million liters.
This is approximately what the transport of the two tanks looked like: from the factory in Zutphen they were transported to the quay, where the tanks were lifted onto boats. They were lifted off the boat at the Alteveer viaduct. Finally, the tanks had to be transported 3.5 kilometers by road to the DOC Kaas factory on the Buitenvaart.
In addition, a 200,000 liter tank was also transported by road from Uddel to Hoogeveen. That sounds fairly clear, but it is not without reason that the Jongsma family needs five months for this.
“The municipalities first had to grant us a permit to close the public road,” Joery Jongsma explains. The large tanks are 5.80 meters wide, just as wide as the public road itself. So for this the road must be temporarily closed, as happened last night between the Alteveer viaduct and the factory in Hoogeveen. “Then you still have to slalom through trees and lampposts are moved and signs are removed.”
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