Six-month project overcame logistical, legal, and technical obstacles, incl. adapting bridges

COLI Group has recently completed a six-month transport project for GE Vernova, moving 14 large power transformers from GE Vernova’s Turkish factory to a job site in Poland supporting the Baltica 2 offshore wind farm. The cargo was shipped across three voyages on three separately chartered vessels, and the project marks the second collaboration between COLI and GE Vernova’s team in Poland.

The transformers were picked up at GE Vernova’s factory and loaded at Safiport in Derince, Türkiye. Ten units, ranging from 110 to 170 tonnes each, were offloaded at the port of Gdynia and transported onward by land to the job site. The remaining four transformers, each weighing 361 tonnes, were barged to Władysławowo, where a complex roro operation had to be carried out. Also, a temporary storage area was set up at Władysławowo while the job site itself was being prepared to receive the units.

Challenges

The onward land transport of the heavy transformers presented a series of legal, technical and logistical challenges. Several existing bridges along the route were unable to carry the weight of the cargo, requiring a temporary flyover structure to be mounted on top of the existing infrastructure. The operation also had to be coordinated closely with multiple local Polish authorities, and carried out through harsh winter conditions, with temperatures dropping to -15°C.

Can Yılbaşı, Business Development Manager, COLI Istanbul, says: “We are very proud of our team and partners to have concluded this special and complex in a successful manner and I want to thank GE Vernova’s team for their trust. Thanks to the flexibility and close cooperation on both sides, we were able to overcome every obstacle along the way and deliver, as we say, a solution beyond the ordinary.”

Felix Peinemann, Managing Director of COLI Group, says: “I am very proud of our team and this project. Moving 14 large and heavy units to the same site in 3 months in challeging conditions is not something any freight forwarder does every day. A key reason that the project came to a succesful conclusion can be found in the combined efforts of people and locations in the COLI Group; that really brings out the value for our clients”.

A milestone project

For COLI, the project represents a significant milestone: it’s the second time working directly with GE Vernova’s team in Poland, and a contribution to Baltica 2: a 1.5 GW offshore wind farm being developed by PGE Group and Ørsted in the Polish Baltic Sea. Scheduled for commissioning in 2027, Baltica 2 will be Poland’s largest-ever renewable energy investment, featuring 107 wind turbines with the capacity to power over 2.4 million households.