Going the distance with Crane Rental Corporation

Crane Rental Corporation, now owned by Maxim Crane Works (IC June 2015 News, page 6), completed an 8,000 mile (13,000 km) project to move three sections of a liquid natural gas (LNG) tank from Oklahoma to West Virginia, USA.

Several trips were made, each of which was different due to paving and construction work and other factors. Around 700,000 pounds (318 tonnes) of load was moved in total. The longest journey for any of the pieces was 1,724 miles (2,793 km) and the shortest was 1,436 miles (2,326 km).

“The biggest complexity of the project was the logistics,” said Alan Ashlock, southeast region president. “Our experienced team designed a method to carry the loads, co-ordinated permits and escorts through multiple states and municipalities, and planned staging areas to park the loads at night.”

The end pieces of the LNG tank were 53 feet long, nearly 16 feet wide, almost 15 feet high (16 x 4.9 x 4.6 metres), and weighed nearly 270,000 pounds (122 tonnes). The centre section was 32 feet (9.75 m) long, approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) in diameter, and weighed about 145,000 pounds (66 tonnes).

All the pieces travelled via suspension cables on Crane Rental’s dual-lane transport trailer. They were moved in 34 permitted days. Self propelled modular trailers were used to move the last 30 miles (50 km) on winding roads with gradients to 11 %. Crane Rental crews then assembled the tank using 700 ton (635 tonne) capacity hydraulic telescopic gantries.

Frank Bardonaro, Maxim Crane sales and business development president, said, “Our heavy haul division enables the recently expanded Maxim team to provide a true one-stop shop for our customers throughout the nation. We are looking forward to expanding the heavy haul fleet to provide even more turnkey service coast to coast.”

See a video of the move here