Transferring Container Cranes Around Curved Rails – Design Considerations

by Erik Soderberg and Michael Jordan

Many wharves have nonlinear berths that meet at a corner. It is often economical to share cranes between these berths, but transferring cranes around the corner is no simple task. This paper and presentation give an overview of the various methods of crane transfer: shuttle systems, the turntable system, and the curved rail, the most popular method of late and the focus of this paper. The seemingly simple curved rail system is actually quite complicated to design. This paper and presentation detail the curved rail’s many design considerations and the options available to owners.