Oakland cranes sail in under the Golden Gate

Sailing across the Pacific Ocean from Shanghai in just over three weeks time, four huge new super-Panamax class container cranes arrived at the Port of Oakland on October 25th aboard the vessel ZHEN HUA 4. The cranes will be installed at the new 120 acre Hanjin Terminal that is now under construction at Berths 55-56. This Hanjin Terminal will open in January 2001.

The cranes sailed from Chinal on September 26th, and arrived in Northern California on October 20th. Strong winds delayed the cranes delivery until 5:20 PM on Tuesday October 24th, when the vessel gently glided under the Golden Gate Bridge with a 6’2”, (2meters), of clearance.

Held at anchorage near Treasure Island overnight awaiting low tide, the crane then cleared the Bay Bridge by a mere 25 inches, (0.75 meter) on their way to their new home in Oakland.

The cranes are currently the largest in the world, and have an outreach of 213’,(65 meters), and each has the capacity to load up to 65 metric tons at one time and the ability to serve vessels up to 22 containers wide. The cranes cost $6.0million each, and the total crane purchase was $2.4million.

Resembling huge prehistoric beasts, the four new cranes will soon join Oakland’s existing inventory of thirty-one container cranes already in operation. One commonly told story relates that George Lucas modeled the “Imperial Walkers” of Star Wars movie fame after Oakland’s container cranes. Whatever their mythology, the Port of Oakland’s container cranes certainly help define the Bay Area’s skyline as one of the most recognizeable in the world. Up to six additional cranes have been ordered from ZPMC for the adjacent 150 acre Berth 57-58 facility being built adjacent to the Hanjin Terminal. Stevedoring Services of America has signed a Letter of Intent to operate that facility when it opens in 2003. When completed, the two new terminals will provide an additional 1,000,000TEUS of annual container capacity to the Port of Oakland.