Four unusual seafarers are arriving in Washington’s Puget Sound today after a long journey from China.
At 434 feet tall with their booms up, the container cranes are the largest on the West Coast. The Northwest Seaport Alliance ordered eight of the industrial giants from Chinese manufacturer Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. The remaining four will be delivered in 2019.
With their booms up, the cranes will stand 434 feet tall. For comparison, the Tacoma Dome is 152 feet tall, Wells Fargo Plaza is 338 feet tall and the towers of the Narrows Bridge are 467 feet above the piers. #port253 #nwsacranes https://t.co/HOWcrtWIb2 pic.twitter.com/JBtarfqF4I
— Port of Tacoma (@PortofTacoma) February 16, 2018
The “super-post Panamax cranes” are equipped to handle vessels of 22 or more containers wide. No cranes of that size are currently manufactured in the U.S.
You can track the cranes’ progress toward its destination on this live map.
Crossing an ocean with cranes taller than Seattle’s iconic Ferris wheel takes some serious nautical power. The cranes are arriving atop a 761-foot-long heavy-lift ship.
The cranes will be installed at Husky Terminal in the Port of Tacoma as part of a $250 million terminal improvement project. They “will have an outreach of 24 containers and a lift height of 165 feet above the pier deck,” according to the Northwest Seaport Alliance.
GeekWire caught up with drone photographer Aaron Bender when following the ship today. He captured some truly epic shots from above the cranes while they were anchored in Commencement Bay in Tacoma.