2002-04-30 23:22:11+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments
I posted about the last delivery of cranes to Oakland, then posted a bunch of pictures of cranes passing under the Golden Gate. They're going to run cranes under the Bay Bridge tomorrow at 9:50.
[ related topics: Photography California Culture Machinery ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment made: 2002-05-01 19:09:14+00 by: petronius
I have been following this story in Flutterby for a while, with a lot of interest. What particularly intriques me is that you have pointed out that the cranes and the ship are of Chinese origin. First it is interesting that China is so great a source for these huge industrial devices, and that the market is big enough that it's worth their while to build a special semi-submersible ship to deliver them. I guess I still tend to think even the rebuilding China as mostly a producer of cheap bicycles and knock-off stereos.
#Comment made: 2002-05-01 21:08:44+00 by: Dan Lyke
There's a Chronicle article with some awesome pictures, including one of a guy on top of the crane touching the bridge.
My impression is that welding on this scale is something you can train almost anyone to do given a few years, and that it's hot dangerous work. The U.S. has been losing ship yards and similar fabrication facilities for years, it makes sense that countries with cheaper workforces would be taking that business. I guess I'd expected that they'd be built in place, but since they seem to run on tracks, and unlike a high rise building they've got to have a much stiffer structure than just supporting their own weight, loading and unloading them is probably mainly a matter of adjusting the ship height. Since you'd still have to deliver the steel, and since most boats of that scale are probably largely custom anyway, I guess it makes total sense to do all the fabrication in one place.
