Capstone Projects Test Logistics Students’ Skills
Editor’s note: This article, published in the Sept. 27 print edition of Transport Topics, is part of TT’s coverage of logistics education programs. Click here for Publisher’s Note and links to more stories and educational-program lists.
Many students who take master-level courses in logistics and supply chain management are required to undertake a special project, called a capstone project, to demonstrate their knowledge and skills.
Students of the Graduate Program in International Transportation Management at the State University of New York Maritime College, Bronx, N.Y., got a first-hand lesson in cargo logistics by helping a local company, UTC Overseas Inc. in Secaucus, N.J., transport three massive electrical transformers from Brazil to a power substation in New Jersey.
The project took almost two years to plan and involved coordination with 12 regulatory and government bodies along with detailed engineering studies of bridges and culverts on one of the most congested highway corridors in the country, according to the school.
“Getting past the New Jersey Turnpike required barging each of the units up the Passaic River, under seven drawbridges, some of which carry high-volume commuter train traffic and could only be opened at off-peak hours,” said Doug Webster, a communications specialist at SUNY who wrote about the capstone project for a school publication.
“To further complicate matters,” he said, “the barges could only move upriver during peak high tides.”
The cargo had to be off-loaded at a specially prepared site on the banks of the river and then driven 18 miles over local highways and city streets at night on specialized heavy-haul trailers. The route included a tight squeeze under an overpass.
“The shipments had a one-inch clearance underneath the Garden State Parkway,” Webster reported.
