Crane Procurement, Crane Modification, and Wharf Expansion, Port Everglades Department of Broward County, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Port Everglades operates seven 1990s, 46.5-LT capacity low profile STS cranes at their Southport terminal for servicing vessels up to 16 containers across.  The port is also serving vessels up to 22 containers across with up to 8 high on deck and purchased new 65-LT capacity cranes.

Liftech made studies to determine parameters for the new cranes and identify required upgrades to the landside infrastructure.  Liftech provided crane procurement specifications, design review, and fabrication review services for the new cranes fabricated in China. 

Liftech designed upgrades for the existing cranes including lift capacity increase from 46.5 to 65 LT and crane structure upgrades to comply with current wind design loads.  The upgrade required replacing the existing DC main hoist drive.  To simplify maintenance, the main hoist, trolley, boom hoist, and gantry DC drives on the existing cranes were replaced with new AC drives.

Liftech designed 5,000 feet of new crane girders, about 3,500 feet for the new cranes at Berths 30–32, and an additional 1,500 feet for the existing cranes at Berth 30.  The new girders were offset from the existing girders, permitting continued operations of the existing cranes during construction, and to suit a larger rail span.  The crane girder systems include cable trenches, power vaults, crane stowage locations, rail frogs, and compact crane stops.

Other infrastructure work includes a two-story building to house switchgear for a 13.2 kV power supply.

Client:
Port Everglades Department
of Broward County
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA