News
A new address for craftsmen’s houses
Usually it is people who change address but, if necessary, Nurminen Logistics can also move the buildings to the new address.
At the beginning of March, Nurminen Logistics moved two craftsmen’s houses to a new address for the Museum of Central Finland. Nurminen handled the whole contract, including hoisting. The houses were moved to the new location in one piece over two nights.
– The houses were moved within the centre of the town, which is why the schedule had to be planned well. The streets had to be closed for loading, unloading and transportation, explains Hannu Vuorinen, Vice President of Nurminen Logistics.
The first of the buildings weighed 65 tonnes, including the weight of the lift frame. The house was hoisted by two cranes onto Nurminen’s special transport vehicle. The load was 8.2 metres wide, 15.3 metres long and 7 metres high. The transportation was demanding, not only because of the size, but because the buildings are old museum buildings, they are priceless and cannot be replaced through insurance. Nurminen Logistics was chosen for the job specifically because the company has the skill and decades of experience in the transport of large museum artefacts.
- When the decision to move the houses was made, I contacted another Finnish museum and they recommended Nurminen. What’s more, we also had previous experience of working with them, says Heli-Maija Voutilainen, Director of the Museum of Central Finland.
- Nurminen understood that it was a question of a unique consignment, which perhaps entailed even greater challenges than usual, continues Heli-Maija.
Moving the houses was a long project and the planning began in May 2009. Several parties were involved in the project and good co-operation ensured that everything went well. The steel lift frames constructed around the houses were designed in co-operation between the manufacturer and the museum experts, and the lifting plan was made together with the crane contractor. Nurminen’s traffic supervisors measured the transportation route and mapped obstacles that had to be removed from the path. Prior to the transportation, Nurminen staff removed numerous traffic signs and advertisements from lamp posts along the way. In addition to this, we obtained the required special permits for the transportation and co-operated with the police in traffic management.
The two night jobs required the use of four special transport vehicles, two truck cranes, three escort cars and four police cars. The first night, three trucks carried the counter weights for the crane in addition to the truck carrying the house itself. The second night was spent moving the smaller house and the terraces detached from the buildings.
- Nurminen demonstrated an incredible level of professional skill in the process. The whole project was extremely finely planned and managed, says Heli-Maija who followed the move herself in person.
The Museum of Central Finland’s craftsmen’s homes are the oldest residential buildings in the Jyväskylä urban area.The larger house – which belonged to a coppersmith called Sjöblom – was built between 1842-1850, and the smaller one – a carpenter’s house and originally owned by a hat maker called Fagerlund – was built in 1844. When apartment blocks were built in the centre of the town, the houses were dismantled and donated to the museum. Now they were being moved to a new location, where the museum intends to open a 19th-century courtyard area that cherishes cultural heritage and allows local people and tourists to see the craftsmanship culture of days gone by. The aim is to complete the courtyard by 2012, when Jyväskylä celebrates its 175 anniversary.
