Barnhart recently completed a multi-phase project transporting four 420,000-pound marine motors, a process spanning eight years, multiple stops, and two company branches.
The project began in 2016 when Barnhart’s Mount Vernon, WA team received the motors at the Port of Seattle for storage. After being resold in early 2023, Barnhart partnered with Sea of Gravity to relocate them to Centralia, WA. The engines were first transported to the Port of Olympia via barge, requiring 24-line SPMTs, 500-ton slides, and a floating crane.
Meeting stringent Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) requirements, Barnhart designed specialized shipping frames and used an 11×11 GS800 trailer combination—spanning 372 feet and weighing over 960,000 pounds. This became the longest permitted load in Washington history.
The Los Angeles branch played a key role in solving route challenges, backing the trailer 1.5 miles out of the Port of Olympia, removing a single tree, and navigating a residential area to reach I-5. Their efficiency enabled all four round-trip moves to be completed within a month, incident-free.
