National
Cranes Services has tested and certified the cranes at Bath Iron Works since
the 1980’s. Two of the cranes used were portal cranes, which are permanently located
at Bath Iron Works. One of them is an
American 300/25 ton capacity portal and the other portal is a Chinese
300/125/25 ton capacity and positioned on opposing runways. These shipyard cranes are continually serviced,
inspected and tested in accordance with Maintenance Program established by Bath
Iron Works many years ago. Greg
Bridgman, Maintenance Engineering Manager, who is responsible for all of the
crane documentation. These cranes operating capabilities’ were familiar to Bath
Iron Works.
However,
the crawler cranes, two 16000 Manitowoc crane which are owned by Reed &
Reed of Woolwich, ME, were not familiar to Bath Iron Works and needed to be
evaluated by Bath Iron Works, US Navy and National Crane Services during the entire
lift planning and set-up process. The cranes were set up and rigged with their “Max-er”
lift attachments, which were a 157’ heavy boom, wheel counterweight @ 50’ and a
97’ fixed lattice mast that gave the cranes a 609,000 LB capacity at a 50’
radius. The calculated load for each crane was approximately 460,000 LB.
There
was over a month of preparation by all parties involved before the configuration;
condition and testing of the cranes were agreed upon. The owner of the cranes
decided to hire two Manitowoc technicians to aid in setting up the new Max-er
heavy lift attachments.
The
completed Deck House, which was manufactured from a new type
material, was built in Mississippi at Ingles Ship yard then transported by
barge to Bath Iron Works in Bath Maine. The barge was placed in the dry dock.
The dry dock was then moored to the dock of Bath Iron Works. Then the barge and
Deck House was then driven off the dry dock and into position.. The Deck House was centered between the four cranes. The cranes were facing each other,
two on each side of the ship way. The Deck House was then raised approximately
80’ in one piece to be set on a new class of Cruiser being built at Bath Iron
Works for the US Navy. The lift went off without a hitch on Dec. 12-14, 2012.
To watch a time lapse video of
the Deck House move click the link below.
