The second of the port’s two massive container cranes is finally getting an upgrade, following delays caused by Covid-19.
The main drive system has been fully replaced and commissioned and attention was now focused on the crane’s self-laying cable reel system.
A new larger reel was necessary to carry a longer cable so it could reach the end of the recently-extended Multipurpose Wharf, the port’s infrastructure asset engineer and project manager for the upgrades, Jon Visser, said.
"The reel itself was successfully replaced last week. It has an external diameter of 5.4m — 0.4m larger than the old reel.
"While that doesn’t sound like a big difference, this allows it to carry an extra 30m worth of cable, weighing an additional 225kg.
"In combination with shifting the cable entry point on the wharf north by around 65m, the crane will be able to travel the full length of both the Multipurpose and the Container Terminal Wharves," Mr Visser said.
The reel also required larger motors and couplings to rotate it. Delta cable jointers Gordon Hamlin and Karolis Tamulionis were part of the team reconnecting the composite cable to the crane and at the substation on the ground.
The cable included copper conductors that provided 11kV electricity to the crane, as well as a six-core fibre-optic cable used for data communications.
An engineer from ZPMC China has just arrived in New Zealand to help commission the new reel system, Mr Visser said.
The overall project was on schedule to be completed by mid-September so the focus could then be shifted to final preparations for the cruise season, he said.
The old reel and motors would be disassembled and stored to be used as critical spares for Cranes 3 and 4 or available if another port needed them.
Staff Reporter
