Special delivery: It normally takes about two weeks for a container ship to cross the Pacific to dock in the Pacific Northwest. The Zen Hua 28 carried four cranes and took six weeks, traveling along the equator to avoid storms that could threaten the ship. It then moved up along the American West Coast, staying close to protected harbors in case of high winds
and rough seas.
The Zhen Hua 28 left Shanghai in January with four new cranes welded to its frame. On Friday, February 23, it finally reached Commencement Bay as the Port of Tacoma got closer to finishing the $141 million pier remodel that will enable the terminal to berth two 18,000 TEU vessels simultaneously.
The new ZPMC cranes can reach across 24 containers and lift 165 feet above the ground. With the booms up, they stand 434 feet high. The Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA), a partnership between the ports of Tacoma and Seattle, voted to approve the $50 million cost for the cranes in 2016. They are the first of eight new cranes for Pier 4. The other four will arrive in early 2019. The Port started planning to acquire the cranes a decade ago.
Renovation of the pier began in 2016 to create one contiguous berth that will accommodate the largest container ships in the world. These massive ships, known as “super post-Panamax vessels,” are longer than the Empire State Building is tall, and wider than the length of a football field. When complete, the pier will be 2,960 feet long. This is the first major project authorized by the NWSA, which signed a 20-year lease extension with Husky Stevedoring that will operate the terminal through 2046.
Prior to the construction, the Port of Tacoma had estimated there were 1,519 jobs connected to Pier 4 in the State of Washington. The construction project itself was a boon to local companies, with lead company Manson Construction employing 50 to 60 people every day on the project. Concrete Tech hired an additional 30 people for the custom made piles to support the dock.
“It’s hard to predict with the alliances how much more cargo we will see come to Pier 4, but it looks
Signals: Local 23 member Jeff Clowers gives a hand signal to the boom operator to “take it up a little.”
like this has the opportunity to be one busy dock,” said Local 23 president Dean McGrath. With much anticipation and media attention, the Zheng Hua 28 came around Browns Point in a rare February snowstorm carrying the four largest cranes to appear on the West Coast.
The ship anchored in Commencement Bay for the weekend allowing boaters and even a paddle boarder to get an up-close look at the new cranes, but not until they tied up to the Pier 4 dock at noon on Monday, February 26, was their increased size so noticeable.
The cranes were welded to the ship and much of the gear needed to unload them was taken off with a temporary boom crane that was brought in for the work. The cranes themselves were sitting on temporary sideways wheel sets, called “trucks”, that are sitting on movable tracks athwartship.
More temporary tracks were set on the dock, and when ready, with the ships deck level with the dock, the cranes rolled off the ship on those rails to where the existing crane tracks have been laid into the dock. Once there, the trucks are removed and the cranes rolled down tracked ramps onto the dock tracks.
The first crane rolled off the ship with the appropriate tide four days after the ship hit the dock and the second came off two days later. A winch system was used to roll the new cranes off the ship. The cranes could become operational by mid-June
– Photos sand story by Benson MacForrest, Local 23