Grove cranes recover broken ship crane in New Zealand
When a ship crane boom collapsed while docked in the Port of Tauranga, New Zealand, local crane rental company McLeod Cranes used three Grove all-terrain cranes to work on the challenging job.
The cranes used were a 170 t capacity GMK5170, a 130 t capacity GMK5130 and a 75 t capacity GMK4075. While all three cranes could manage picking the 16 t bent and twisted boom section, maneuvering the awkward load required careful teamwork and controlled movement of the load.
While the team knew the boom’s weight, there was no way to identify the center of gravity, and a mass of tangled cables added to the challenge — lifting the section without causing additional damage. Scott McLeod, managing director at McLeod Cranes explains:
“We brought three cranes to be sure we could carefully extract the boom without causing any further damage to the ship,” he says. “We used lifting eyes on the boom to carefully maneuver it clear. It was slow and cautious work, but we were as efficient as possible.”
A team from Page Macrae Engineering worked with McLeod Cranes on the recovery.
Established in 1996, McLeod Cranes is a lifting and transport specialist with branches in Mt Maunganui and Taupo on the north island.