Britain’s Largest Crane Passes Under The Forth Road Bridge

June 13th, 2011 by JCB
Posted in Articles, Technical and Training | No Comments »

The UK’s largest crane passed under the famous Forth bridges in Scotland on the morning of 3^rd March 2011, following a 14,000 nautical mile voyage via the Cape of Good Hope, bound for Rosyth Dockyard in Fife.

Once commissioned, the “Goliath” crane will be used to assemble the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers at Rosyth Dockyard. It cost $20 million, has height of 68 metres to the underside of the main beams, and a span of 120 metres to cover the construction area of the carriers. Lifting capacity is 1,000 tonnes and it was two years under construction in Shanghai by the Zhenhua Port Machinery Co. (ZPMC).

The Goliath crane left its construction site in Shanghai, China, on 17 December 2010 on the deck of the specialist crane transport vessel “Zhen Hua 13”. At a length of 243m, beam of 39.3m and 88,000 tonnes displacement it is believed that she is the largest vessel ever to pass under the 121 year old Forth Rail Bridge or enter Rosyth Dockyard.

The Zhen Hua 13’s transit of the River Forth, passing under the Forth Bridges and docking at Rosyth was the result of several months planning and co-operation between Forth Pilots, the Port Authority, Babocks (who own the crane and dockyard), Network Rail and the Forth Estuary Transport Authority.

The actual operation took place over several days, with the vessel arriving at the outer anchorage in the river on 1^st March. She then ballasted down to 11.5m draft, leaving a freeboard of only 1.5m for the 18 mile river passage. The air draft was then verified by the dockyard, using laser equipment.

Passage upriver began at 0515 on 3^rd March and “Zhen Hua 13”passed underneath the Forth bridges at exactly 0730 as planned, during the low water period, dropping anchor just off Babcock’s Rosyth Dockyard shortly thereafter.

The final stage of the operation was entry into the dockyard itself during high water on 4^th March. At the inner anchorage the vessel de-ballasted to a draft of 8.1m.  The entrance to the dockyard has recently been widened to allow the new aircraft carriers to depart after construction. However, even with the widened entrance there was only 1.4m clearance on either side of the vessel. A total of six tugs were involved in the docking.

This fairly unusual act of pilotage presented several challenges for the pilots involved.

The crane structure on deck meant that the view forward from the wheelhouse was very limited and also gave a very large wind area. With her large air draft the clearance under the Forth Rail Bridge was just over 2m, and it was therefore essential that she pass exactly under the centre of the bridge span.

Three pilots were utilised for both operations – one on the bridge wing, one in the wheelhouse and one on the fo’c’sle. The pilots for the river / bridge transit were Keith McLean, David Kelley and Graeme Hutchison and for the docking they were Keith McLean, David Kelley and Donald Lucas. Both the bridge transit and dockyard entry were trialled by on the ship simulator at South Tyneside College. The simulations proved invaluable, allowing the best approach to the task to be confirmed and the building of confidence that such an unusual vessel could be safely handled at the port.

Keith McLean (Forth)

I thought that the Agents did it!

Coinciding with the above excellent  report from Keith, I also received a gushing press release from the GAC shipping agency which opened with the following:

It took meticulous handling and perfect timing to sail the Goliath crane beneath the Forth Bridge on its way to Rosyth shipyard in late February/early March. With careful coordination by GAC Shipping UK’s Leith office acting as port agent with all the parties involved, the massive load arrived safe and sound.

The release concluded:

Since we first learned of this project in November 2008 and the intended shipment of the Goliath crane in April 2010, there’s been a hive of activity to coordinate and plan for the vessel’s arrival …the meticulous planning has now paid off, effecting a very smooth, very safe operation from transit of the bridges to the vessel’s final berthing in Rosyth.

So now you know!!

JCB