Luminant Completes Dragline Relocation Project


Nearly 60 self-propelled trailers were used to move four draglines a total of 30 miles.
Luminant recently relocated four draglines more than 30 miles in total to new mining areas across east and central Texas using a state-of-the-art 1,000-wheel vehicle. Nearly 60 self-propelled modular transporters, trailers powered by up to nine 600-hp engines, were used to move the draglines—the smallest weighing 6 million lb and the two largest weighing 13 million lb each. This engineering achievement was no small feat, according to Steve Kopenitz, Luminant senior vice president of mining.

“It usually takes several years to disassemble and rebuild a single dragline, or months of planning and preparation to ‘walk’ them to new mining sites. With our longest move spanning 15 miles, we needed to find a way to safely, efficiently and cost-effectively transport the draglines,” Kopenitz said. “Thanks to the ingenuity of our employees, we shortened the relocation process to just a few weeks per dragline using the interconnected trailers.”

“Projects like this require extensive preparations and careful attention to details. Our team coordinated logistics for everything from crossing pipelines and closing and crossing county roads to building new roadways and lowering and disconnecting power lines,” said Brad Gadt, Luminant heavy equipment relocations manager. “With literally thousands of moving parts to manage, including the machine size, transport distance, scheduling and weather changes, our employees consistently kept their focus on safety from start to finish.”

As featured in Womp 2014 Vol 10 - www.womp-int.com