Beware: lumbering giants on roads

MOTORISTS on the main routes from the coast to Gobabis and Otjiwarongo must exercise caution for the next two weeks as two gigantic transformers for NamPower’s Caprivi Link Interconnector (CLI), Project are being transported to their destinations in Otjiwarongo and Katima Mulilo.

The larger of the two transformers, a 400/220kV transformer weighing 187 tonnes, will be carried on a special 98-wheel trailer to the Gerus substation near Otjiwarongo. The length of the trailer is 44 metres, and it is 4,3 metres wide. The trip will take five days.’The width of the cargo will probably force motorists to pass along the road-shoulders, and it will be a long pass too because of the length of the trailer. They must just be very careful,’ said one of the CLI project’s leaders, David Hechter.He said company patrol cars and traffic police vehicles will escort the consignment to ensure safety.The Zambezi Transformer, which is slightly smaller, weighing 140 tonnes, will make its way to Katima Mulilo; but because of its weight, a detour through Botswana and Zambia will be taken.Hechter said the Divundu Bridge north of Otjiwarongo is too small to allow the cargo to cross over.’Because of this detour, we will have to add about five days to our schedule,’ he said. ‘It could take about three weeks for us to get to Katima.’The Zambezi Transformer will first be transported to Windhoek, where after it will make its way to Gobabis, through Botswana and Zambia, and then to Katima Mulilo.The two transformers arrived at the Walvis Bay harbour on Thursday on the shipping vessel Panthera from India, where they were manufactured. They were offloaded on Friday in the presence of Minister of Mines and Energy Erkki Nghimtina. Two more transformers of similar size are expected to arrive in Walvis Bay on June 22.Nghimtina hailed the offloading as a ‘unique event in the history of electricity infrastructure development in Namibia’.He said the CLI project is the second largest single investment (N$3,2 billion) yet in Namibia. Scorpion Zink was the largest.The project, which is 60 per cent complete and expected to be commissioned in January 2010, will strengthen Namibia’s transmission grid, offer alternative electricity import routes, and relieve transmission congestion. It will also enhance the objective of the Southern African Power Pool to interconnect SADC countries.Nghimtina said SADC’s power sector has for years been characterised by the shortage of generation capacity as well as transmission infrastructure. This resulted in inadequate electricity surplus in the region.He said the Namibian Government realised the urgency for proper infrastructure and so injected money into NamPower for infrastructural development.’We can see here that our Government, through NamPower, is serious about electricity and the realisation of our Vision 2030 goals,’ he said.