New heavy lift dock in Houston

New heavy lift dock in Houston Intermarine said its Industrial Terminals affiliate in Houston has completed a new deepwater dock for project and heavy lift vessels.
   The company said it is designed to the heaviest load standards of any facility in the region, and features two gantry mounted cranes, direct shipside rail access and is capable of handling vessels 550 feet long and drafts up to 33 feet.
   The facility will be named Kavanagh Dock, in memory of Intermarine’s founder Roger Kavanagh who died last year.
   The company said the new dock has 400 feet of actual dock or apron space and is ideally suited to handle Intermarine’s C, D and soon-to-come E class vessels that have overall lengths of 400 to 460 feet.
   The dock length is also adequate for the working of three gangs on one ship, which the company said improves turnaround time and schedule integrity.
   To handle heavy lift cargo, the dock has been engineered to support a sustained, overall load of 1,000 pounds per square foot, which Intermarine said is equal to the highest rated docks in the port of Houston and 10 times the load capacity of modern interstate highways.
   It has direct rail access engineered for load factors that exceed current rail industry standards and turning radii that can accommodate the largest heavy lift railcars.
   “Direct rail access for heavy lift cargoes has been a goal for quite some time,” said Darce Kullman, general manager of Industrial Terminals. “With this capability, the cargoes are subject to fewer handlings, which reduce damage potential, and our clients can save literally thousands of dollars in reduced handling costs.”
   He said addition of the Kavanagh Dock would allow the facility to work three large project cargo vessels simultaneously.
   Industrial Terminals is located on the Houston ship channel, and claims to be the largest project cargo terminal in the United States. It is the primary load center for Intermarine’s North American services.