New gantry cranes speed cargo movement at DSC's Military Ocean Terminal Concord
Their gigantic white skeletal superstructures catch the eye. They weren't at Pier 3 a short time ago.
These cranes have a clear purpose, they were brought to the terminal to do a job-loading ships with up to 520 containers a day during round the clock operations.
With their immense booms in the "up" position, they constitute a new and prominent visual reference point on the skyline all the way from the California towns of Benicia to Antioch.
The crane operator sits in a cab 111 feet above the ground. The cranes, perched atop rails that allow 256 feet of horizontal movement along the length of the pier, are maneuverable enough to load containers into any cell of a container ship berthed alongside.
When fully operational, the pace of loading and discharge operations will increase almost eight-fold, according to Lt. Col. Prescott Marshall, commander of the 834th Transportation Battalion and MOTCO.
"A 430-container load aboard a ship will be completed within two normal working days instead of seven. MOTCO will become a full-service port capable of nearly matching the volume and pace of its Sunny Point, N. C., sister terminal," Marshall said.
Two years in the making, the electrically operated cranes were built by the Mendoza, Argentina, based Pena Company, which won the bid from the Navy. The contract specified that at least 50% of the parts must be U.S.-made, so Pena contracted out many portions of the crane components to local and national suppliers and fabricators.
The sub-assemblies and individual parts were shipped to the port in Antioch where final fabrication and assembly took place.
After final assembly the cranes were floated atop barges to the 834th's terminal for installation.
Pena, an experienced crane manufacturer, is simultaneously installing numerous other similar cranes around the world, including two in Chicago and two in Houston.
The cranes are now being hooked up to MOTCO's power grid so that the Navy's Crane Center can test them prior to final acceptance. Once functional they must undergo a 12-hour operational endurance test as well. (FROM MILITARY TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT COMMAND, DEPLOYMENT SUPPORT COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).
Follow Us On:
