In 2011, Richard Plumb and his team from Plumb Engineering had a problem: how to move a 340 ton rock 106 miles to its future resting place at the Los Angeles Museum of Art. Permits, logistics and load analysis. Slam dunk. Noooo problem. In October of 2012, team Plumb had a slightly bigger problem: moving a comparatively “light” aircraft – a mere 170,000 pounds (about the weight of 56 cars) on a 350,000 transport vehicle – from its landing site to the California Science Center in downtown Los Angeles.
The ship was the space shuttle Endeavor, and it wasn’t the weight that was a challenge. 122 feet long, 50 feet high and with 78 foot wingspan. Big. So exactly how did team Plumb do it? Travel speed 2 miles per hour. Expected problem. Lots and lots of curious onlookers. But serious planning and lots of permits and local coordination required.
“On Friday [October 12th] morning at 2 a.m., the hulking transporter inched forward to start the journey. Plumb, who was part of a team that included engineers, utility and construction workers and local police, followed in a vehicle behind the shuttle, making sure it stayed in the designate position in the street. In the months leading up to Friday, he had poured over old drawings and surveys studying what lay beneath Manchester, Crenshaw, and Martin Luther King Boulevards. There were sewer, water, and storm water pipes made of concrete, even clay. ‘Some of them date back to 1920 or 1930,’ Plumb said. ‘You have to be careful.’
“Using 3-D modeling, Plumb’s team had analyzed what the road and the pipes could handle and determined where steel plates were needed to disperse the heavy load--2,600 steel plates in all. Above ground was another story. Teams surveyed every type of obstacle: light poles, power lines, traffic signs, parking meters, and trees. Many were removed in advance, including 400 trees in Englewood and South L.A., which the science center will replace with nearly three times as many to appease local activists.
“But some obstacles needed to return to normal more quickly. So crews working ahead of the shuttle raised, lowered, or removed them. The most serious issue was three major power lines. They hung too low for Endeavour to clear. Each had to be lowered, “de-energized” and then brought back online as the shuttle passed. The catch was not having fewer than two power lines in use at once…The risk? ‘A possible blackout for the city of Los Angeles,’ he said… Fortunately, there was no blackout during this endeavor. Unless you count naps. Crew members dozed during two five-hour breaks.” FastCompany.com, October 15th. For team Plumb, another day, another job. For the rest of us, a spectacle without equal. Actually, even to Plumb, this was a “once in a lifetime job.”
When American engineers set their minds to it, we can be pretty awesome. Much of what they design and create folks never see. Occasionally, it is a whole lot less subtle.
I’m Peter Dekom, and I thought you might just be curious.
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