By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTWhen Calgary, Alberta-headquartered Atco Frontec was awarded in 2007 five NATO contracts to provide up to five years of multiple support services to the Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan for the more than 10,000 troops serving NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, the task involved transporting breakbulk equipment to Pakistan’s Port of Karachi and over very difficult terrain in Afghanistan. Albacor Shipping, Inc., and Blue Sea Shipping Lines became responsible for arranging the logistics support for some of the shipments in Afghanistan. Other Blue Sea Shipping clients have included the British Army in Kabul; the British Embassy in Islamabad and Kabul, the US Army in Kandahar and Kabul, Italian Forces in Kabul and Herat, JSC Technopromexport in Moscow, and various construction companies projects in Pakistan. “We are engaged and a number of several world wide networks like World Wide Project Consortium (WWPC), PPG (Project Professional Group), and Haba Sped & P&HL Alliance (Projects and Heavy Lift Alliance) for Pakistan and most likely for Afghanistan,” Mohammad Sohail, chief executive, Blue Sea Shipping Lines in Karachi wrote AJOT. “Blue Sea shipping lines is very much involved in the handling of project/heavy lift cargo in Pakistan and Afghanistan.” In one case, shipments consisted of 77 packages with 1,000 million tons and 1,750 cubic meters of used airport equipment, including heavy lift and outsized cargos. This particular load for Atco Frontec and NATO went by ocean freight and heavy haulage vehicles to NATO’s final destination. Atco Frontec’s contracts, which commenced in August and September and were awarded by the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency after a significant competitive tender process, contributed to the sustainability of upwards of 10,000 international troops based at the Kandahar Airfield. The contract required Atco Frontec to deploy more than 350 trained personnel, including airport disembarkation operations, infrastructure, utilities and support services, as well as pest control. Specific sectors of responsibility included fire and crash rescue, visiting aircraft cross-servicing services, roads and grounds maintenance, facility maintenance, construction, engineering, equipment and vehicle maintenance, aircraft movement control and terminal transport, accommodation services, supply operations, airfield mechanical transport, delivery of potable water, sewage management, and waste management and disposal. This example demonstrates the depth and breadth that some breakbulk shipments require. US EMBASSY NEEDS In another case, Trans Himalayan Express Pvt. Ltd. transported various heavy and outsized shipments through the mountains and narrow roads and villages of Nepal for the construction of the new US embassy complex in Kathmandu. One included a 40.026 ton grove crane, 127 cubic meters in length. Weidlinger Associates Consulting Engineers PC in New York State provided the structural, seismic, and blast engineering services for the $67 million design-build embassy complex that was completed in 2007. The project included the main chancery, three compound access control structures, a US Marine security guard quarters, and a utility building. All of the buildings are constructed of reinforced concrete with large penetrations to maximize day lighting. Driven precast-concrete piles were needed for the interior of the compound and larger drilled shafts along the perimeter, where driving operations could have damaged very old existing buildings in close proximity to the new structures. RUSSIAN SPACE SHUTTLE MOVE Further, last year Russia’s Space Shuttle Buran (meaning ‘snowstorm’ or ‘blizzard’) was successfully transported from Bahrain to Germany’s Speyer Technik Museum via the Port of Rotterdam on a journey that involved WWPC members Procargo, Ltd. of Finland, LS International Cargo Gmbh of Germany and Steder Group B.V. of the Netherlands. Together, they teamed up to arrange for safe and smooth logi