Tacoma’s Giant Container Cranes to Arrive this Week
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
A heavy-lift ship carrying four of the U.S. West Coast’s largest container cranes is scheduled to travel through Puget Sound on February 23.
Puget Sound Pilots are scheduled to board the Zhen Hua 28, a 761-foot-long heavy-lift ship, early Friday morning in Port Angeles and begin the journey to Tacoma. The ship will sit at anchor in Commencement Bay for a day or two before delivering the cranes to Husky Terminal at the northwest end of the Blair Waterway.
The Northwest Seaport Alliance ordered eight new super-post-Panamax cranes from Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd (ZPMC) in China through a competitive bid process.
ZPMC is the largest heavy-duty equipment manufacturer in the world and delivers more than 200 cranes every year around the world, including many seaports in the U.S.
The other four cranes are due to arrive in 2019.
When they arrive, the cranes will be installed at Husky Terminal, which is undergoing about $250 million in terminal improvements that began in September 2016 on Tacoma’s General Central Peninsula.
The eight new super-post-Panamax cranes are capable of serving two 18,000-TEU containerships at the same time, and have an outreach of 24 containers and a lift height of 165 feet above the pier deck.