Heavy-lift specialists have used multi-wheeled Scheuerle trailers to move loads of
1,000 tons and more in the past, and Dave
Foster is confident the feat can be repeated
on the Slave River portage. That view is
shared by a senior official at Mammoet, the
heavy-lift specialist company that raised the
Soviet submarine Kursk from 108 metres
below the Barents Sea in 2001.
“Technically, it’s certainly feasible,”
says Bas Bronder, vice-president of operations for Mammoet Canada Western
Limited; however, loads of 1,000 tons or
more exceed legislated limits on Highway
5. The portage road crosses the
Alberta–Northwest Territories boundary at
the south edge of Fort Smith, and
Mammoet is preparing technical documents for both governments.
It appears this historic trade route
could soon be commercial again, bringing
much-needed and logistically challenging
vessels and modules to the oilsands.
