The new Titan sailing toward its homeport
The pontoon carrying 4 STS cranes, acquired by Davila Group Termavi, each 112 meters high, departed from Amsterdam - The company expects it will arrive before Sunday.
The new port titan sails for home. The Super Post Panamax crane acquired by Davila Group in Holland for the Container Terminal -Termavi- departed from Amsterdam on Saturday. It will travel, next to its three identical sisters destined for Tenerife, all through the week, navigating the waters of the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Climate conditions will determine its arrival in Vigo. The probable dates for the Ria to receive this new resident are between Friday and Sunday. Rain, wind, and poor navigation conditions already postponed the voyage, which was scheduled at first for the end of September.
This operation implies a real challenge for the company and it will be a turning point in the sector. "It is the first time that four cranes such as these are transported on a pontoon simultaneously." Says Alvaro Molina, Project Division Manager at Altius, from Davila Group. To give an idea of the "complexity" of this process, Molina recalls that the weight of just the four cranes amounts to 5,600 tons. "Down to the port of Brest in France, we have a second tug support boat but from then on we continue with just one," he concludes. The speed at which it advances "depends on climate conditions", and ranges between 3.5 and 9 knots.
During the voyage, Altius' technicians will control the cargo minute by minute via internet, thanks to a computer program that continually updates the pontoon's estimated arrival time. Everything is under control on this unprecedented operation that will result in the unloading at Termavi of a 1,350-ton crane, 112 meters long (with pen extended), 72 meters when at work, and 26 meters wide. Such sizable cranes can only be found (on the Atlantic Arc) at the Sines terminal in Portugal, so this will make Vigo the most important port in Galicia. To complete the operation, Altius employed 320 tons of steel, a team of 20 welders at work for 8,000 hours, and 750 hours of engineering to design and build reinforcements. The arrival in Vigo will not mean nonetheless the end of this challenge. At Termavi the engineers will work with a counterweight system to keep the platform balanced while the crane is being unloaded. "We will use ballasts," they tell us.
Source: El Faro de Vigo