A local engineering company by the name of CMI Energy welcomed a massive 13.4 million pound shipment into the port of Erie on July 23rd. CMI Energy is an engineering company that designs, engineers, procures, and provides aftermarket support for Heat Recovery Steam Generators worldwide. They have been around since 1840 and employ around 100 people at their location in Erie. The employees rarely get to see the result of their engineering feats, and this project was one of the few occasions where they actually got to see their hard work. This is the first time since the 1990s that the Port of Erie has seen a shipment of this size. This massive shipment weighs more than the total weight of all the freight received into the Erie port for the last eight years.
Unloading and shipping the components for this Heat Recovery Steam Generator took several weeks and required complex planning and permitting with PennDOT to get to its destination of New Castle, Pa, nearly 100 miles away. CMI Energy recruited the help of two other local Erie companies including Don Jon Shipping and Barnhart Transportation for the logistics of the project.
The skilled shipping of this massive cargo required Barnhart Transportation's best crane and rigging vehicles. It was loaded onto our Heavy-Haul configurations and transported directly past CMI's office, which has also never been done before. Some of the shipments being transported were 219 feet long and over 20 feet wide and required special permits and police escorts while in transit. Assembled, these units will take up over one acre of land and stand over 150 feet in the air. When functioning, they will serve as a power plant, converting natural gas into electricity and help provide power to Pennsylvania.