Port accessAfter a long and complicated manoeuvre in the Port of Bilbao, a fully erected crane was embarked whose destination is a container terminal in Guadalupe, a small archipelago of the Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. The loading operation, which was carried out in a day and lasted twelve hours in all, was prepared and coordinated by forwarder Altius Group, shipping agent Marítima Dávila, and stevedoring company Toro y Betolaza in conjunction with the Port Authority of Bilbao.
The crane, of the container ship STS type, was designed by Pacheco and built and finally assembled by Kalmar.
It weighs 1,280 tonnes, is 68 metres high and 27 metres wide. It took sixteen months to assemble it, piece by piece, on Dock A-3 in the Outer Abra.
Self-propelled modular transporters (SPMT) were used to bring the crane to the vessel side. It was lifted on to the ship using its two cranes.
The Altius Group chose Big Lift Shipping’s M/V Happy Star was the vessel for the operation: it is 156 metres long, 29 wide and has a 1,000-tonne SWL that is 2,200 tonnes working in tandem.
Once on deck, lashing will be carried out by using supports and deck welding over 5 x 24 working days.
