Yarbrough Transfer Company moves 65,000 pound granite blocks

A Polished Job

(As seen in American Cranes & Transport - October, 2010)

Yarbrough Transfer Company based in Winston-Salem, NC is performing a significant project for the North Carolina Granite Corp., moving approximately 70 granite blocks from Mount Airy, NC to Jersey City, NJ. The blocks weigh approximately 65,000 pounds each and measure 12 feet long, 6 feet wide and 6 feet tall. While the granite blocks are not that bulky, they are very fragile and require kid gloves handling.

This project is of significance from a national perspective, because the granite blocks will be used to build a monument in memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Roosevelt Island in New York. Once the granite blocks reach Jersey City, NJ, they are shipped by barge to Roosevelt Island, where the blocks will be used to construct the monument. The monument builders have commissioned a film documentary about the construction monument, of which the movement of the blocks from North Carolina to Jersey City will be featured, according to David Yarbrough.

"An important part of the project is that the granite is being transported pre-cut and polished," Yarbrough says. "To win the bid on the project, we were required to engineer a method for tying down and securing the granite without scratching or otherwise damaging the beautiful rock."

Yarbrough Transfer accomplished this engineering obstacle by designing and mass-producing a harness to fit on each corner of the blocks. The harness features padded wood and has tie-down hooks at each corner.

An overhead crane was used to load the trailers on site in Mount Ariy, NC. Unloading was accomplished using a barge crane at Weeks Marine Terminal in Jersey City, NJ.

All total, the job will involve 70 loads, one granite block per load. By mid-September, Yarbrough Transfer had hauled 16 loads. Yarbrough says the total tonnage of granite hauled to this point is approximately 520 tons out of approximately 2,275 tons total that eventually will be moved to the jobsite.

Yarbrough Transfer used a 6-axle tractor-trailer configuration comprised of 3-axle tractors and 3-axle step decks and RGNs for the 550 mile journey. All loads are required to be permitted due to the gross vehicle weight of 108,000 pounds.

"We assigned eight drivers to the 16 loads we have done to this point and then each driver ran two round trips from North Carolina to New Jersey during a one week period," he says. "The drivers loaded together, left together, and drove together."

He says other than a short detour in Virginia due to roadwork that route was pretty much all freeway.