Red Bud-manufactured modules being shipped to Congo

<span>CHESTER -- With bucket trucks and escort cars leading the way, a convoy of vehicles transporting a pair of refinery modules crossed the Chester Bridge on Monday afternoon.</span>

<span>The modules, manufactured by Red Bud-based Roeslein Modular Fabrication, LLC, are being transported to the Port of Houston in Texas, where they will be shipped to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for installation as part of an oil refinery.</span>

<span>"Matt Fox and myself work for the Process and Energy Department (at Roeslein)," said Assistant Project Manager Chris Kattenbraker. "We both worked on this project through a joint effort through the St. Louis office and Red Bud office.</span>

<span>"In St. Louis is most of the engineering and coordination and Red Bud is the fabrication of the modules themselves."</span>

<span>Kattenbraker said the modules, which spend six months in the engineering process and another six months in construction, fit together like building blocks and inject an additive into the process that produces fuel. He declined to name the project's client.</span>

<span>"A lot of our customers like to be kept confidential," he said. "It's for the oil and gas industry and the industry now is moving toward large modules so they can be fabricated in a controlled environment and shipped to the site so that the site can be prepared early for the civil work."</span>

<span>The two modules weigh a combined 120,000 pounds and their large size required a considerable amount of manpower to transport.</span>

<span>"The width restrictions and the height and weight," Kattenbraker said of the challenges the convoy faced. "Obtaining permits and scheduling police escorts and in this case, the trucking company had to raise (power) lines and trim trees."</span>

<span>The convoy was originally scheduled to leave Red Bud on Nov. 12, but permit delays pushed the departure time back several days. Fox, who is the project coordinator in the company's St. Louis office, said the modules are facing a Nov. 25 shipping deadline to reach the Port of Houston.</span>

<span id="docs-internal-guid-96b62a0b-c17c-54b9-9d6a-1dbef822e250"><span>"It's amazing to see something that's going to travel halfway across the world and know that it was designed and built basically in your backyard by your neighbors," he said, adding that between 20 and 30 people worked on the project. "It's a tremendous amount of pride to see that thing go across the Chester Bridge."</span></span>