EDWARDS USED THEIR FOUR-POST 500-TON GANTRY SYSTEM TO TRANSFER LOADS FROM THEIR ONSITE TRANSPORTERS TO THEIR OTR EQUIPMENT—USING ANYWHERE FROM 55- TO 200-TON SHACKLES, DEPENDING ON THE PIECE BEING PICKED.
September 30th. (Te receipt of request for quotation [RFQ] became official on April 29th, with the Award of Contract landing on July 8th. Te 14 super loads were all delivered on schedule between November 10th and 20th, 2014.) Fourteen of the larger pieces were put on two hopper barges—the pieces were large enough that it was more economical to put them on barges rather than ship them over the roads. In conjunction with these pieces, about 285 smaller crated pieces were staged at the port based on a pre-planned load sequence, and then loaded to over-the-road (OTR) trucks and delivered to the FTP at an average rate of 10 trucks per day. “As each piece came off, a load plan was developed for
each one,” White said. “And it all had to be married to a delivery sequence. In other words, as the stuff came off the ship, it was moved to a large warehouse, checked in, and given a designation—so that when the trucks arrived, we knew exactly when and how to send it.” Edwards’ responsibility within the larger project centered heavily around the check-in and organizational processes—
getting the right pieces on the right trucks and barges, and keeping the schedule flowing. For the truck pieces, once on the road, further details had to be attended to: the weight, along with the overall travel height of nearly 14 feet, required the use of very specialized trailers to pass DOT requirements in reference to overhead bridge clearances and weight distribution on the numerous bridges on the route. (And the cherry on top: White also admitted that organizing a lot of truck drivers can be like herding cats.) With the barges, as the cargo came off the ship, the ship
provided a stow plan. “Basically: these pieces are here—those pieces are there,” he explained. “You need to work with the Port to decide which pieces go on which barge, but before we ever got to that point, we had to engineer a stow plan for each barge—to coincide with the stow plan on the ship, which coincided with the delivery schedule for the client. “You then have to coordinate available space on the barge, and account for the structural integrity of the barge. Certain pieces have to be loaded a certain way, facing a certain way, and at the same time, you have to calculate the space required for all of this to fit on two barges.” All of this, of course, required some pretty sophisticated
machinery. “We used two 500-ton cranes, making a two- crane pick out of the hopper barges,” White said. “Tis method required using two 170-ton modular spreader bars— additionally requiring four 12-foot, 85-ton (vertical lift) wire rope slings, supplemented with four 18-foot, polyester 100- ton (vertical lift) slings.” Moreover, Edwards used their four-post 500-ton gantry system to transfer loads from their onsite transporters to their OTR equipment—using anywhere from 55- to 200-ton shackles, depending on the piece being picked. To maneuver all of this cargo, on both water and land, Edwards enlisted the services of quite a few companies—from
22 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2015 WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84