Because this requirement meant extended construction time, Norship – which has an engineering arm – decided to build the wharf itself, employing specialist trades as required.As the cost of hiring a crane for the duration of the project would have been high, Norship considered purchasing a used crawler crane. However, when the costs of a 10-year inspection that would almost certainly be required on a used crawler crane were taken into account, this also became an expensive option. The price of a new 70t Zoomlion crawler crane was very competitive, and the lift chart and other specifications met the requirements for the project, so Norship operator Ray Fry ordered one sight unseen from Australian distributor Dellgale.From the time the crane started work in May, it has worked every day without problems. The only concern to date is that the protective coating used on the crane is inadequate for the marine environment, but since Norship has a division that applies protective coating to boats, it has that problem well covered.The new wharf will be home to a 400t ship lifter built to a design commissioned by Norship. The company has also commissioned two smaller ship lifters used in the business. Part of the ship lifter was fabricated by Aimtek, a company owned by Fry’s brother, and Norship is assembling the ship lifter and undertaking hydraulic and other fit-out.Norship designed and built a 10t pile gate used for guiding the piles of a falsework bridge system, also developed by the company to avoid having to mount the Zoomlion crane on a barge as the finger wharf progressed. A 10t piling hammer was suspended from the crane to drive the piles, which were up to 30m long.The Zoomlion worked with 36m of main boom for this job and used an 18m fly jib for handling concrete formwork. Around 1000t of concrete and 104t of reinforcing was used to build the new wharf.Norship also operates a 30t Lima lattice boom truck crane, a 12t Linmac AWD pick and carry crane, 8t ASI and Cranvel tractor cranes and a 20t Kato rough terrain crane, all of which have had 10-year inspections. Norship’s 70t Zoomlion crawler crane working from a falsework bridge system to build a new finger pier wharf.
