Ascon you’ll receive

One of the most difficult and challenging areas of haulage is that of abnormal loads. Ascon is providing its own solution.
Ascon is Ireland’s largest civil engineering company. Because of the nature of its day-to-day operations, Ascon has had to become particularly proficient in the transportation of abnormal loads. The company has developed a specialist fleet to safely carry the oversized and awkward type of cargo/machinery associated with the construction industry.

Headquartered in Kill, county Kildare with a sub-office in Little Island in Cork, Ascon has a fleet which is second to none in the management of abnormal loads. Pride of place goes to the company’s 500 horsepower, Scania R143 EL 8 x 4 tractor unit with Nooteboom Euro lowbed trailer.

The tractor unit was originally a 6 x 4 but was converted into an 8 x 4 with the addition of an extra axke directly in front of the two driven rear axles to give the vehicle its extra payload capacity and at the same time keep the turning circle to a minimum. This modification was built and designed with the approval of Ascon’s own in-house engineering team.

One of the many novel features of the Nooteboom Euro-90-40 trailer unit is that the four rear axles are steered, ensuring the greatest possible manoeuvrability. The new transporter is fitted with an override steering system which enables the trailer’s axles to be steered independently of the tractor units for manoeuvring in very tight situations.

Another interesting aspect of the new vehicle is its road-friendly hydraulic suspension which allows each axle to share an equal part of the load. The full hydro-pneumatic suspension also incorporates a stroke of 300mm which reduces the risk of damage to the road surface. Net payload is approximately 90 tons.

Transport Manager John Doyle continues: “It’s a 22-metre long Dutch trailer which we bought new with the truck, which is a twin-drive Scania with twin-lift axle, in 1993. As far as I’m aware, this was the very first 8-axle low-loader combination to come into the country. You need a number of special permits to run it and the tractor unit exists specifically to pull this low-loader.”

Ascon also run a number of other low-loaders as well as a semi-loader and a 3-axle king loader. Included in the fleet is a 1998 Scania 460 6 x 4 with a Palfinger 66000E fully radio-controlled twin-drive with truck-mounted crane which can lift up to 3.5 tonnes @ 15 meters radius.

In terms of abnormal loads, Ascon will carry just about all types of heavy machinery, everything from large crawler cranes, crushers, to various sized excavators from 68 ton weight down. The fleet is there primarily for their own use and their own work always gets priority although, from time to time, they carry out abnormal load work for other companies.

“We’re basically a construction company with our own haulage licence and we do most of our own haulage,” says John. “Outside of the abnormal loads which can be quite complicated and specialist, the other more general, standard transport is really just a matter of picking up the phone and getting it done.”

Also included in the Ascon fleet is a brand new Volvo FM7 fitted with a Palfinger 32080 radio controlled truck mounted crane. “We more or less design what we want ourselves,” says John. “We sit down with the supplier and we discuss all the finer points of the vehicle, right down to colour. We liaise with the body builder and everything is custom built to our specifications.
“Everything is done so to adapt the vehicles to our particular uses. The type of work we take on is exceptional, with special requirements, so we have to have trucks that can handle that work.”

Founded in 1958, Ascon covers the 26 counties, employing approximately 1,300 directly and double that number if subcontractors are included.

Gerry Prendergast has been with Ascon for 17 years. He is Plant Director, responsible for the plant and equipment fleet. Quite an undertaking when one considers that Ascon (which also does industrial and commercial building under the name Rohcon) has plant with a written down value of £9.35m and a new capital cost of £28m.

“Transport is just a small segment of that,” notes Gerry. “We have about six trucks on the road, all of which are involved with the haulage of abnormal loads. All the trucks are either Scania or Volvo and the standard trailers are mainly from Dennison or OKM.

“It is company policy to always have the best possible fleet. We replace everything at regular intervals to ensure that our equipment is of modern standard and up to date with the ongoing incremental advances that each newly designed piece of equipment brings to the market place.

We maintain all our own equipment and have a specific maintenance team who looks after our transport fleet. This team has full facilities, which includes a truck lift for the purpose of maintaining this fleet.