Local officials in a small French town are crossing their fingers as they wait for a giant crane to rescue an oversized load that’s stuck on a bridge.
Owned by a trucking company named Wack, the Scania semi was delivering a massive furnace to the Novacarb chemical plant in Laneuveville-devant-Nancy, a town located in the northeastern part of France. The setup stretches about 32 yards long, seven yards wide, and eight yards tall, and according to local news reports, the furnace weighs a total of 182 tons. The route took it over a small bridge in Jarville-la-Malgrange, France, and that’s where the trip went very wrong.
“This was the only route we could take to deliver the furnace. But, this route included a bridge that oversized loads are not normally allowed to drive on, so our client had to install two metal platforms that covered the bridge,” Pierre Wack, the owner of the trucking company, told French newspaper l’Est Republicain.
“The left-side platform collapsed by about 20 inches under the weight of the convoy, which caused it to start rolling. There wasn’t a problem with the truck, the trailer, or the driver; the problem was that one of the two platforms collapsed,” he added.
It’s too early to tell precisely why the platform collapsed because the investigation is ongoing. The more pressing problem is that, as of writing, the truck is still stuck on the bridge with its passenger-side wheels in the air and a jumbo furnace leaning against the guardrail. Officials are worried about whether the guardrail can withstand the furnace’s weight; if it doesn’t, there’s a chance the entire tractor-trailer combo will roll into a canal.
Wack said a 1,300-ton crane is expected to arrive on Thursday to lift the truck, trailer, and furnace off the bridge. This delicate operation will take at least several hours, and in the meantime, officials have tied the convoy to the metal platforms in a bid to prevent it from tipping over.
The 22-year-old driver panicked when the truck began to roll. He realized that his rig would fall into the canal below if the guardrail didn’t hold. He quickly made his way across the cab, opened the passenger-side door, and boldly jumped out. He landed several feet below, on one of the platforms that was laid out for the truck, and was taken to the hospital with injuries. He was released the next day after getting five stitches.
As for the furnace, Novacarb believes there might be a way to save it.
“For now, the most important thing is to get [the furnace] off the bridge and to our factory as quickly as possible. Once it’s here, we’ll assess the extent of the damage. It might need a few bent pieces of sheet metal replaced, or we might need to replace a couple of internal parts on the side that’s currently leaning against the guardrail. We can’t tell for sure yet,” the company told l’Est Republicain.
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