Konecranes has received an order from the Port of Houston Authority (PHA) in the U.S. for nine Rubber Tired Gantry (RTG) cranes. They will be shipped to the Port Authority’s Bayport Container Terminal in mid-2016.
The nine Konecranes RTGs on order are high-performance, 16-wheel RTGs with a lifting capacity of 40 LT, a stacking height of 1-over-5, and a stacking width of 6 plus truck lane wide.
When these cranes are commissioned and working, the Port Authority will operate a total of 69 Konecranes RTGs.
The PHA is the largest container port in the Gulf of Mexico. It is responsible for eight cargo terminals and one cruise terminal along the Houston Ship Channel, and in 2014, its terminals handled more than 37 million tons of cargo.
In late February, Executive Director of the Port of Houston Authority, Roger Guenther reported that dredging is progressing well at the Bayport and Barbours Cut channels. With much of the disposal site and preparatory work complete, plans call for adding two dredges to the project so that in the coming months, one dredge will work at Barbours Cut and two dredges will operate at Bayport.
“ Dredging continues to be closely coordinated with the (Houston) Pilots, the maritime industry, and the communities around our terminals, ” he said. “ When the new Barbours Cut cranes are commissioned, our deepened channel will be complete and ready – and the Bayport channel will also be completed this year, well in advance of the completion of the new Panama Canal locks. ”
The first phase of the Bayport Terminal opened in January 2007 and the terminal is today the most modern and environmentally sound container terminal in the Gulf of Mexico. At full build-out, this state-of-the-art terminal will have a total of seven container ship berths with the capacity to handle 2.3 million TEUs a year.