PORT DEVELOPMENTS | FEATURE
from vessel-to-rail in 24 hours; increase working tracks from eight to 18; add over 18 miles of track to the terminal; and double the rail lift capacity to a million containers per year. It also facilitated the building of trains entirely on GPA property instead of in the residential neighborhoods, which would disrupt traffic for extended periods. CP&A - the company offers a wide
variety of services, including procurement, specification, design, manufacturing review, modification, and accident investigation - prepared the RMG crane specifications; assisted in bid reviews; performed structural and mechanical design reviews; provided fabrication support services, including site audits to the manufacturers; and performed inspections upon delivery to GPA. The initial order was for eight cranes with a further two incorporated into the contract in time. The yard opened with two cranes in operation, long before the 10th crane was built. The cranes, manufactured in Florida,
Texas, Wisconsin, and Croatia, span 175 ft. over nine rail tracks. They have a cantilever, giving the trolley
a total travel distance of 213 ft. and the cranes a total length of 245 ft. This is a long span, which thusly had to be assembled on-site. The overall width - bumper- to-bumper - is 102 ft. The Buy-America contractual agreements also presented manufacturing challenges, since normally these cranes are made more internationally. Andrew Hanek, civil engineer at CP&A, detailed the scale and initial challenges. “The lift heights can carry a container
over a rail car stacked two containers high [one-over-two], which puts the trolley rail at 60 ft. above ground. The trolley rotates
R CP&A: The lift heights can carry a container over a rail car stacked two containers high..
the containers since the yard trucks are oriented 90 degrees from the rail tracks. The lifting capacity is 40 long tons [2,240 lbs.], and both the trolley and gantry can travel at 150 m/min. “The crane structures were shipped all on flatbed truck, with oversized permits, and assembled on-site since the rail yard does not have access that would have permitted the cranes to arrive fully erect,” he said. Hanek explained that a design peer review involved performing independent
calculations to review if the proposed crane designs met the contractual requirements. The fabrication support services provided periodic quality assurance audit checks at the manufacturing sites and review of any engineering-related issues that arose. For such rail yards, Hanek explained that RMGs are typically specified due to their longer spans and greater speeds at traversing down the length of the train. RMGs can also be used for stacking containers in the yard but the tracks make it much more expensive to reconfigure the yard layout, and an RMG cannot cross to different container stacks. Rubber- tired gantry (RTG) cranes, meanwhile, are typically used for stacking containers in yards and can cross over from one stack to another, making them more mobile. “RTGs do not have to follow a rail track and their trolley movement is limited to between the legs. [An RTG] also uses rubber tyres so they typically operate on concrete runways in the container yards. RMGs follow a rail track and they can be larger, and the trolley can travel outside the legs. It’s also true that RMGs typically have a higher traveling speed for both the trolley and gantry movements,” he added.
Q CP&A: The cranes span 175 ft. over nine rail tracks..
Dockside Lift & Move Supplement | December 2022 | 13
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
