880 TON SHIP UNLOADER METICULOUSLY MOVED FROM THE RICHARDS BAY PORT QUAYSIDE
With an overall length of 88m and a total weight of 880 tons, the Lovemore Bros team had the monumental task of weighing and moving a Caillard ship unloader away from the Quayside at the Richards Bay Port. Through meticulous, accurate rigging and engineering skills, coupled with very slow cautious movement, the Lovemore Bros team were able to move the unloader efficiently and safely.
“The technicality of moving such an enormous piece of equipment was to ensure that the unloader was kept stable and balanced at all times. If there was too much weight transfer at any given time, especially during movement, may have caused an imbalance and the unloader to topple over,” says John Paine, Lovemore Bros Richards Bay Manager.
The first phase of the job was to jack and weigh the unloader using four 200 ton jacks. “We had to first jack and weigh the landside of the Caillard which came in at 380 tons and then had to do the same with the seaside of the unloader which weighed 500 tons,” says John.
With 25m of the boom spanning over the water, phase 2 of the job saw all the bogies been turned and placed onto tracks and used to slowly move the ship unloader backwards 44 m away to the back wall of the Quayside.
“In order for us to move the unloader we had to set each bogie up individually and carefully jack them up, cut and ground them free from the unloader,” says John, “We then turned them 90 degrees, placed and then welded them back onto the unloader and lowered them onto the tracks.”
Once all the bogies were turned and placed back down in their 90 degree positions, each bogie was then put on individual tracks where the unloader was meticulously anchored. The Lovemore Bros 45ton reach stacker was then used to move the Caillard unloader to the back of the Quayside where it was finally secured.
