UNDER THE SEA
WE received a phone call at around 4pm on the 17th May to assist Richards Bay Coal Terminal with a ship loader chute which had fallen into The Richards Bay Harbour. We were on our way back from Richards Bay when we received the call. We were able to head back to RBCT, obtained site access permits and meet with the RBCT project team that evening.
After a site visit, we had a discussion in the RBCT engineering office, RBCT were satisfied with our proposal and gave us the go ahead to recover the 14.6m, 20 ton ship loader chute, which was resting roughly 19 meters on the estuary floor. Permission from Transnet, to place the crane on the quay side, was obtained and mobilisation of teams and equipment started. A mobile crane (440 ton), rigging team and a commercial dive team were required to safely execute this task. It was very interesting yet intense working under these conditions, all prep work was done based on a dive inspection, done under water with very poor visibility.
Our plan of action worked well and we lifted the load out without causing any damage. A tight program was achieved, with work completed on Wednesday, 19 May.
All in all the job was completed in good time with no damages and we helped to preserve our beautiful marine life.
