News: February-April 2003

SSA Cranes Stranded at Manzanillo

The Port of Manzanillo, Mexico felt the shock wave from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake centered at Colima 50 kilometers to the east. This caused a 75-mm misalignment of the adjacent OPI and SSA berths. The misalignment was at the expansion joint between the berths and distorted the crane rails so the two SSA cranes, which were parked on the OPI berth, were stranded. The wheel flanges interfered with the bent rails. One SSA crane was entirely on the OPI berth, the other straddled the expansion joint. Since neither crane could be returned to the SSA berth, the SSA facility was out of operation.

A Liftech structural engineer flew to Manzanillo and developed a simple scheme for moving the cranes from the OPI berth to the SSA berth across the bent rail: trim the rails. The cranes were back in service on the SSA wharf within a few hours. The facility was back in operation two days after the Colima earthquake struck.

Bent rail at expansion joint	Worker grinding the rail for the stranded crane
Crane wheel interference at expansion joint	Trimming the crane rail

Arun Bhimani at the 2003 AAPA Facilities Engineering Seminar in Baltimore

Mr. Bhimani was on Panel VII: Emerging & Innovative Issues, and presented Low Profile Cranes—New Applications Wednesday, April 30, from 8:30-10:00 a.m. To download the PowerPoint presentation, please visit our Publications: Cranes section. To sign up for this event, please visit the AAPA website.

Feroze Vazifdar at TOC 2003 Asia in Hong Kong

Mr. Vazifdar of Liftech and Mr. C. Davis Rudolf III of Virginia International Terminals led a Masterclass on Crane Procurement, Modernization, and Maintenance at the TOC Asia conference February 27, 2003. To download the PowerPoint presentation, please visit our Publications section.

Michael A. Jordan at TOC 2002 Americas in Miami

Mr. Jordan presented Quay Crane Design on November 21, 2002 at the Terminal Operations Conference & Exhibition in Miami.To read his paper on the same topic, please visit our Publications section.

Arun Bhimani at the 2002 Pan Pacific Conference

Mr. Bhimani was on a panel at the Port of Oakland's Pan Pacific Conference and presented Increasing Quayside Productivity. To download the PowerPoint presentation, please visit our Publications section.