November 14 - Liebherr has installed a heavy lift fixed cargo crane on a new dry dock facility on the US side of the Niagara Falls, to lift the Maid of the Mist tourist boats from the Niagara River.
Earlier this year the Liebherr crane was constructed in Rostock, Germany and Sunderland, UK, before being consolidated in Brake and shipped to Hamilton, Ontario. From Hamilton, it was transported on several flat-bed trucks across the Peace Bridge, to the former Schoellkopf site in Niagara Falls and lowered into position in the Niagara Gorge.
The 143-tonne crane, which has a 200-tonne capacity at a radius of 15 m and a maximum outreach of 24 m, began lifting the 600-passenger Maid of Mist boats onto the new dry dock facility for off-season maintenance at the end of October. In spring the crane will reverse the operation, returning the tour boats to the water for the start of the season.
Maid of the Mist's new dry dock and maintenance facility is part of a project to keep operations running on the American side of the Falls, after Hornblower Cruises won a bid to operate boat tours on the Canadian side next season, leaving the company without a place to store its boats.
