Two Vancouvers join for Olympic project

Two Vancouvers join for Olympic project    The Washington state Port of Vancouver is set to play a role in the 2010 Winter Olympic efforts by the Canadian city of Vancouver 300 miles to the north.
   While the Vancouver, Canada, boasts a formidable port of its own, the U.S. Port of Vancouver boasts the largest mobile harbor crane in North America. Capable of lifting 140 metric tons, the crane has played a critical role in the U.S. Port of Vancouver becoming the heavy-lift go-to facility for the West Coast, including a booming trade in massive wind turbine components heading to wind farms in Oregon and eastern Washington.
   Canadian officials preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympics in their Vancouver, faced with arranging delivery of several large cable-car gondola components and four spools of cable weighing 100 metric tons each, have turned to their U.S. namesake port and the massive mobile crane for a solution.
   The cable, to be stretched between two Canadian peaks near Whistler, British Columbia, will create the longest free span lift in the world and carry 28 of the passenger gondolas. When the lift is completed later this year, the gondolas — each capable of carrying nearly 30 passengers — will transport passengers on an 11-minute trip between the two peaks.
   The cargo, which left Belgium on April 19, is scheduled to arrive at the U.S. Port of Vancouver in June and travel by train to the Whistler ski resort, located about 60 miles north of Vancouver, Canada.