July 15 - Virginia, USA headquartered Global Rigging and Transport has been contracted to move three huge ship-to-shore cranes for the South Carolina Port Authority.
The cranes are being moved individually using a 400 ft x 100 ft (121.9 m x 30.48 m) floating barge from the Wando Terminal to the North Charleston Terminal, in order to make room for three new cranes capable of servicing some of the world's largest container vessels.
According to Tommy Felch, Global Rigging & Transport's general manager, one crane has already been moved and a second will be relocated by the end of July.
In order to execute the move Global Rigging & Transport lowered the upper assemblies of the cranes by 60 ft (18.28 m), explained Felch: "We designed a temporary A-frame and system for lowering and raising the upper assemblies to clear the Don Holt Bridge en route to North Charleston. We also had to ballast the barge down to 3 ft (0.3 m) of freeboard and pass the bridge at low tide to clear."
