Passenger boarding bridges travel 500 kilometers by road

The German air hub in Frankfurt is being expanded for 19 million passengers: The new Terminal 3 is scheduled to go into operation in 2026 – by then, all passenger boarding bridges, which passengers use to get from the terminal building to the aircraft, must also be permanently installed. At the beginning of April, a. hartrodt organized the heavy-duty haulage by road from the Dutch Port of Rotterdam to the airport site for the first six "trunks" manufactured in China. "We had to cross the tarmac due to the size of the goods. It was a really spectacular experience at night," reports Project Manager Alexandra Fethke, who works as Manager Sea Freight Projects at a. hartrodt in Hamburg, enthusiastically.

Six bridges were dismantled into 20 individual parts

45 days after the ship left Yantian (Shenzhen) with the bridges, which had been dismantled into 20 individual parts, it arrived in Rotterdam on Easter Sunday. "The large parts had to be loaded within a maximum of three days," says Alexandra Fethke. Only specialists can manage this, as the longest package measured 20.90 x 3.68 x 3.95 meters and weighed around 30 tons. Smaller parts were unloaded from flats and open tops and transported to Frankfurt during the day.

Air traffic in Frankfurt could not be disrupted

The team of a. hartrodt Germany organized the heavy haulage and handled everything from customs clearance, unstowing of the containers and receiving the goods in Rotterdam to the onward transport of all parts to Frankfurt and the organization of the unloading crane at the airport. "The large main packages were subject to road permits and were only allowed on the road at night," explains the Project Manager. In two steps, the convoy traveled approximately 220 kilometers to Venlo and another 280 kilometers to the airport: "The vehicles arrived at the airport at 2 a.m. and had to cross the tarmac by 4 a.m. to avoid disrupting air traffic."

A second batch with similar dimensions will arrive in Rotterdam port in May. "This time we are managing transportation from door to door. Even if it takes the whole night, we make sure everything is in the right place," says Fan Luo, Managing Director South China at a. hartrodt. In Shenzhen, a. hartrodt supports the shipment with dedicated monitoring services until loading on board of the vessel.