04.09.2006

New port cranes' bolts need to be replaced

Nearly 6000 structural bolts on four container cranes built by Shanghai Zenhua Port Machinery Co are below specifications and have to be replaced.

The cranes - each weighing 1,600 tonnes and costing $7.5 million (£3.9 million) each - arrived at the Port of Houston's new Bayport container terminal site in Houston last year. The facility is scheduled to open in November.

Port executive director Tom Kornegay said that the bolt problem — 1,440 bolts of the wrong kind on each crane — was discovered weeks ago by inspectors who have been checking every aspect of the terminal's construction.

However port spokeswoman Felicia Griffin said last week that officials from Shanghai Zenhua Port Machinery Co had already notified the port that the bolts did not meet specifications.

It would appear that the bolts are the correct size, just the wrong specification. Griffin said the bolts that are being installed in the cranes now are A490 bolts that are made to specifications, different from the specifications of the original bolts.

Had the problem bolts gone undetected, they could have posed a safety problem once the terminal began operating, Kornegay said.

"The inspectors are thorough, so it's not likely they would have missed the problem," Kornegay said. "All cranes go through load testing before they are certified for use."

Whether the bolts would have failed during load tests is unknown, Kornegay said.

All the bolts are expected to be replaced by next week, Kornegay said. Other types of bolts used on the cranes met specifications.

The crane's manufacturer declined comment.

Each of the cranes handles an average of 35 containers an hour, depending on such factors as the size of ships being loaded or unloaded and how the containers must be stacked

The terminal's first phase is scheduled to open in November. Port officials had hoped to open Bayport last spring, but design and technology changes forced the delay.

Ground was broken in 2004 on the $1.2 billion Bayport facility, which is projected to handle 2.3 million containers annually.

Ultimately, the Bayport terminal is expected to triple the port's annual container traffic, which went over the 1 million mark in 2000 and hit 1.58 million in 2005, according to port figures released earlier this year.