Life or death freight securement

Recently, I transported two 20,000# pipes from the factory to an emergency repair site where a creek had washed out a bridge. The road was not a major route, however it was a main road that connected rural communities and inconvenienced people greatly.


 
This load was challenging and made me very nervous as I'm reasonably new to operating a step deck. Each pipe weighed 20,000# and rolled! The last thing I wanted was to have one or both of those to roll off into 3 lanes of I-95. I firstly secured two 4"x4" pieces of lumber for each pipe to scotch or chock it from rolling. Then, I secured each end of the pipe with a 3/8" transport chain that has a working load limit (WLL) of 6600#. I stopped and checked the load often because with freight like this, you can't be too careful. Sure enough, along the way I was able to tighten up the chain binders a bit.



Getting to the site was a little tricky as I had to take a 53' trailer down through the country. I even crossed a bridge with a 6 ton weight limit. That scared me, but it was approved by the Virginia DOT as this was the only way in. Once near the site, I had to turn around and back nearly a 1/2 mile down to the bridge. There was a crane on site that easily lifted the pipe off my trailer and into place. Hopefully soon the bridge will be completely repaired and the community can return to normal.