DSI - On the move
Daniel Smith Industries is renown for it’s formidable crane inventory, and it has been at the forefront for several decades for putting class leading cranes to work throughout the country.
Owned by Daniel Smith of Rangiora, the company is just as well known for the trucking fleet that carts the cranes around the country.
Daniel’s T909 Kenworth went to work in 2012, and was the first to go to work in New Zealand at the time. It joined a stable of other very capable Kenworths to make this fleet unique for a number of reasons.
DSI were pioneers in the building of wind farms, bridge building, and other large infrastructure projects.
The following clips were shot prior to the rebuilding of the Kaikoura segment of SH1, when oversize loads had to take the Lewis Pass route to Picton.
The T909 is hauling a crane-chassis which wouldn’t fit through the old tunnels. The remainder of the crane could be eased through the tunnels as you will see lower down the page.
While the largest segment of the crane heads inland to go over the Lewis Pass under the T909, the rest of the crane is hauled by a convoy up SH1 to the ferry terminal at Picton.
This crane was loaded in Invercargill and the heads north to Dunedin, going through Mataura, the back-route to Winton, where it rejoins SH1 and heads to Dunedin.
These clips highlight what this segment of SH1 used to be like.
The Kaikoura road tunnels were very tight, and bore numerous scars from trucks mis-judging the approach, and the Seddon road-rail bridge had very tight approach and exit lines, as shown here.
A bit of history…