This test involved erecting the Terra Marique's portable gantry lifting system which is capable of carrying a single piece load of 500 tons.

The 130 ton load was suspended above the middle of Terra Marique 's three independently elevating roadway sections as the 2,211 ton vessel was deliberately flooded with 250,000 gallons of water. This part of the operation required careful monitoring of Terra Marique's draft as the vessel sunk. Once the water within the hold was at the same level as the water outside, the remaining watertight door was removed, the stern ramp hydraulically lowered into the water, and Inland Navigator was brought into the flooded hold.

For this test, the bow roadway section remained in an elevated position while the centre and stern roadways were lowered and thus completely submerged.

The load was lifted into and out of Inland Navigator's hold in both floating and dry condition.

Specially designed docking blocks had been positioned along the hold floor of Terra Marique for its daughter vessel to settle on. Once docked, the watertight doors of Terra Marique were repositioned and the hold pumped out.

The test's project engineer Chris Johnson said, 'The test went exceptionally well and the Terra Marique performed near perfectly. All of the team involved are well satisfied that we have the right tools for the job to hand.'

Robert Wynn & Sons corporate affairs manager Tim West added, 'This is the final piece of the engineering puzzle now in place. We are now able to take a single piece load of up to some 300 tons and move it entirely by water from, for example, Nottingham to Worcester or Windsor to York.'

MJ Information No: 20507