Terex cranes on Amazon floating pier

Logistics company Tomiasi Logistica Pesada (Tomiasi) based in northern Brazil, has helped out with an expansion project at the Port of Chibatao in the the Amazon.

The 40,000 TEU (ton equivalent unit) capacity port is located on the Rio Negro River. It has a 450 metre long floating pier, which can serve up to four vessels with drafts ranging between 12 to 20 metres, a company spokesperson said.

For the expansion project, an extra lane on the bridge that connects the pier to land was added. The project involved positioning prefabricated bridge sections that were transported by barges.

To help carry out the work, Tomiasi used three Terex all terrain cranes, including an AC 500-2, an AC 200-1 and an AC 350/6. The eight-axle AC 500-2 has a carrier length of 17.1 m and when configured with a luffing fly jib it has a working height of 145.8 m. The five-axle AC 200-1 has a capacity of 200 tonnes and its standard main boom reaches 67.8 m. When configured with a main boom extension the maximum reach is 100 m. It has a top speed of 85 km/h. The six-axle AC 350/6 has a 350 tonne capacity and a telescopic boom length of 64 m. All the cranes are fitted with the IC-1 control system.

The cranes were set up on barges because the bridge is partly floating and partly supported by pylons.

Jander Roque, sales analyst at Tomiasi, said, “Tomiasi is located not far away, on the Amazon river, so to ship the cranes, we put them on a barge, fully loaded. It only took 40 minutes to ship it and one hour to have them ready for work.

“The difficulty is that we had to perform a triple lift with cranes on barges. The load of each section was between 320 and 360 tonnes. We have a Terex crawler that could do the job, if it was on land but, in this case, to distribute the load in multiple barges, we used three Terex all terrain cranes, an AC 200-1, an AC 350/6 and an AC 500-2.”

Once the bridge sections were positioned on the barges, the cranes could lift the sections into place. To carry out the lifts three operators, four auxiliaries and one lift co-ordinator were used to rig and lift the load.

Enoque Neto at Tomiasi, said, “Operating from barges is an extremely delicate and precise operation. At Tomiasi, given our location on the Amazon, we are pretty experienced but it never ceases to be a challenge.

“In these operations, load monitoring is vital, that's why using three Terex all terrain cranes with IC-1 control system helps. We know the measures are precise and consistent across the cranes. With everything going as planned and no delays due to the weather we managed to complete the job in only five days.”