Delayed gantry crane trio set for Los Angeles port delivery

Delayed gantry crane trio set for Los Angeles port delivery Three Japanese-built gantry cranes, waiting in Mexico for more than a month, are expected to move under the Vincent Thomas Bridge today, headed for a container terminal at the Port of Los Angeles.
   Now at anchor in neighboring Long Beach harbor, the Dock Express 10 heavy-lift vessel carrying the Paceco-Mitsui Co.-built cranes is scheduled to begin its transit just before 4 p.m., and pull to berth at the TraPac terminal by 6 p.m. The move, timed to coincide with low-tide, will see the top of the 220-foot-tall cranes come within five feet of the bottom of the suspension bridge. This is the first gantry cranes transit under the bridge in five years.
   The cranes are part of a major expansion of the TraPac terminal that was delayed, along with all other major port development, for more than four years by threatened litigation over the negative environmental impacts of the project. Last week, the governing board of the Los Angeles port broke the self-imposed development moratorium and approved the environmental documents covering the terminal project.
   Delivery of the cranes was timed to match the original date for the passage of the project's environmental documents in early November, but a decision by the port to extend the public comment period for the project documents also required a delay in the cranes' delivery.
   The cranes, which each cost about $7 million, were moved to a standby location off the Mexican coastal city of La Paz following the delay decision.
   The delivery delay added just over $1 million in extra demurrage, handling and transport fees, more than doubling the total delivery costs for the cranes to just under $2 million. The three cranes will replace four older cranes and reduce the total number of gantry cranes at the TraPac facility from 11 to 10. ' Keith Higginbotham