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June 30, 2008
Two of the six post-Panamax container gantry cranes ordered by MOL’s TraPac Terminal at the Port of Jacksonville, Fla., arrived on June 16 and cleared the troublesome Dames Point bridge on the full-moon low tide with about five feet to spare.
The cranes were manufactured by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. in Japan and shipped to Jacksonville by Dock Express.
The cranes have the capacity to lift 50 long tons and reach across 19 containers, about the width of the Emma Maersk.
These are the first two electric canes placed in operation at the Port of Jacksonville. All six of the Mitsui post-Panamax cranes to be installed at the TraPac Terminal will be electric.
The Jacksonville local of the International Longshoremen’s Association will provide the crane operators. The remaining four cranes are expected in the next few months, and the terminal is scheduled to open in January.
When the Dames Point bridge was designed, it was one of most beautiful suspension bridges on the drawing board. But the bridge was delayed because of a shortage of federal funds. By they time construction began, the bridge was obsolete because it offered only 160 feet of clearance at a time when the ships being built exceeded the bridge span clearance.
Nevertheless, the bridge was built as designed, restricting access to the Port of Jacksonville and causing the port to seek a new terminal for its growing cruise ship fleet east of the bridge. |
