big deals

Among the most notable of Emmert International's specialized transport projects was the hauling of the Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' wooden aircraft, from Long Beach, CA to a museum in McMinnville, OR. “We transported it by dollies onto an ocean-going barge up the Pacific Ocean to the Columbia River to Portland,” Terry Emmert recalls. “[While we were in Portland,] then Mayor Bud Clark declared a proclamation of “Spruce Goose Day,” as the plane was tied up on the barges.”

In the1984 the company took on what was deemed an impossible project, moving the historic San Antonio Fairmount Hotel to save it from the wrecking ball. The idea of a 3.2 million pound hotel being transported down the street and across a bridge and over the RiverWalk and including a couple of 90 degree corners was one that generated a tremendous amount of media interest. Tom Brokaw covered it for NBC News and David Frost featured it on his show. “We received international coverage for the move,” remembers Emmert. “Twenty years later we can still see it on television. We were doing 20 to 30 interviews a day at one point.”

An historic property that was built in 1906, the Fairmount is an important part of the history of San Antonio. On April 4, 1985 at an approximate cost of $1 million, Emmert crews placed the building onto its new foundation. The project won the SC&RA Hauling Job of the year, the AGC's Build America Award and the International Association of Structural Mover's Largest Structure Moved award. In 1986, the Guinness Book of World Records included the project as the largest structure ever moved on wheels.