By Mitchell Clarke
A 100 metre long superload, weighing in at a whopping 640 tonnes, travelled through Officer and Pakenham as part of its journey to Loy Yang.
Its entire load measure is longer than two Olympic sizes swimming pools and weighs as much as 130 elephants.
To facilitate such a big move, four prime movers were required, along with a team of specialist engineers.
Traffic management officers and load escorts travelled with the convoy for the entire journey to ensure roads remained safe.
Officers helped to manoeuvre the six metre wide vehicle safely around corners by temporarily removing signage and lights and placing steel supports over existing drainage.
The complex operation to move the large electrical component was conducted in stages across three nights, beginning its journey at 9pm on Monday 1 June from the Webb Dock in Port Melbourne.
The mammoth piece of machinery travelled via a number of metropolitan roads before being stored at a secret location in Dandenong South overnight.
The superload left Dandenong South on Tuesday night, 2 June, for the most onerous part of the journey, travelling throughout the south east.
It passed Hallam and Narre Warren before reaching Officer, Pakenham and Nar Nar Goon shortly before 1am.
Despite VicRoads warning of no viewing opportunities, keen spectators sat out in freezing conditions at various locations to witness the fascinating piece of machinery.
Rebecca Taylor viewed the convoy from an overpass in Pakenham. She said watching it in person took her breath away.
“It’s an amazing thing to see, a true feat of engineering,” Ms Taylor explained.
“Having witnessed the first hand amount of work involved, the number of escort vehicles and the work happening out in front of the load to manage traffic, it’s incredible that it didn’t have more of an impact on the roads.
“It all just looked so seamless.”
The superload was docked at the Yarragon Weighbridge Station on Wednesday 3 June after a nine-hour journey, travelling at a top speed of 20 kilometres per hour.
On Wednesday night, the convoy left Yarragon for the final leg of the journey towards Loy Yang B in Traralgon.
