IN FOCUS / MCKAY UNITED
UNITED GROVES TO THE RESCUE Leading Melbourne crane hire business McKay United, recently completed the company’s largest “all Grove” dual-lift utilising Grove all terrains. Cranes and Lifting finds out more. VICTORIA INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER TERMINAL (VICT) is Melbourne’s newest container terminal. It features a state-of-the-art container handling system including 20 Automatic Stacker Crane (ASC). When one of the ASCs derailed, McKay United deployed two Grove all terrains, a GMK7450 and GMK5250L to assist. VICT is located north of Port Phillip Bay at the mouth of the Yarra River, at the Port of Melbourne’s Webb Dock East. The 35-hectare terminal has an annual capacity of over a million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) and a straight berth of 660 meters that can accommodate two vessels along-side. The OneTerminal deployment at VICT includes a Kalmar Automatic Stacking Crane (ASC) system comprising 20 ASCs, and it was
one of these that had derailed. “We are talking about an automated system for handling containers and because the ASC had come off its rails, it was holding up the whole container handling process and the production of the port in a fairly major way,” said Simon Atkins, general manager, at McKay United. “The ASC had actually twisted so this proved a challenge and it was difficult to locate the twisted wheels back on the tracks. The ability for both the GMK7450
and GMK5250L to work at nearly maximum chart was a very positive and rewarding outcome for our client. “They had tried to jack the crane initially which proved unsuccessful, so I went down and had a look. There was an issue getting into the area due to a water runway which we had to fill in with crushed rock and a steel plate to provide access for both the GMK 7450 and GMK5250L. “We prepared the cranes in the yard and the GMK7450 got to the
For the first phase of the project the GMK7450 and GMK5250L placed the gantry crane back on the tracks. 62 / CAL July 2020
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