Two Groves repair gantry crane
8 January 2020McKay United, an equipment rental and service company in Australia, deployed a Grove GMK7450 and a GMK5250L to repair a derailed gantry crane at Victoria International Container Terminal in Port Melbourne, Australia’s first automated port.
The project was the biggest lift McKay United has completed since owning both Grove all terrain cranes.
“The gantry had actually twisted so this proved a challenge and it was difficult to locate the twisted wheels back on the tracks,” said Simon Atkins, general manager at McKay United. “The ability for both the GMK7450 and GMK5250L to work at nearly maximum chart was a very positive and rewarding outcome for our client.”
For the first phase of the project the GMK7450 and GMK5250L placed the gantry crane back on the tracks. For the second phase of the project, the GMK7450 picked up one side and slewed the gantry crane away from the damaged rail and onto the straight part of the track, with the assistance of winches controlling the other side of the load.
The 450t GMK7450 was configured with 120t of counterweight, with 25.7m of main boom extended to lift at a 7m radius. The 250t GM5250L was configured with 50t of counterweight, and it had 37.9m of main boom extended to lift at a 7m radius.
In total McKay United used the two cranes for four separate dual lifts of the gantry crane, with the GMK7450 lifting between 160t and 170t of the total load, and the GMK5250L lifting around 55t. The whole project lasted 16 hours, eight hours each on two consecutive days.
“We set up both cranes in four hours. To allow them to get into position, we had to fill a water runoff drain with crushed rocks, so the cranes could pass over it. We also had to cover the area with steel plate,” Atkins said.
