August 29 - Turkey's Hareket Heavy Lift transported two Liebherr gantry cranes from Derince Port to Evyap Port in Izmit, in what was the largest barge transportation project ever undertaken in the country, claims the company.
The disassembled cranes were first shipped to Derince Port due to space restrictions at the Izmit gateway. Hareket worked closely with mechanical engineering contractor Portunus to plan the assembly of the cranes in Derince and the complicated transport operation to the final destination.
Hareket was on hand with one 600-tonne capacity Terex CC2800 crawler, one 300-tonne lift capacity Terex CC1800 crawler, one 300-tonne capacity Liebherr LTM1300 mobile crane, and a Liebherr LTM1160 mobile crane to assemble the new gantries. Over the course of the three months the gantry cranes were configured and, once completed, each unit stood at 111m high, 28 m wide and 79 m long and tipped the scales at 1,256 tonnes.
After assembly works were completed, the cranes were moved one-at-a-time to Evyap Port using a 90 m x 27 m heavy-duty barge.
Hareket manufactured two 28.5 m beams on which each crane would be transported, and two units of 24-axle line Goldhofer PST-SL/E self-propelled trailers equipped with load spreaders were used to roll the gantry crane onto the barge.
The gross weight of the crane, spreader and trailer configuration was 1,614 tonnes, with an axle line load of 33.6-tonnes per-axle.
The operation was made more complex due to the huge width of the crane, with the bogies of the crane overhanging the edge of the barge. Eight steel supports were positioned under each 28.5 m beam, transferring half of the load to the barge, with the remaining weight supported by the trailer tyres, to ensure the barge stayed stable during transit.
Upon arrival at Evyap Port, the combination was safely rolled-off the barge and rotated 90 degrees in order to complete the final installation operation, which required each wheel of the port crane to be gently lowered onto rails using the Goldhofer trailer.
