The new Nassau Container Port (NCP), owned and operated by Arawak Port Development Ltd. (APD), a public company, has demonstrated that it has the facilities, equipment and superbly skilled teams to perform the most challenging services demanded of a modern international port. This month NCP was called upon to land six giant tanks destined for the Shell franchisee, Sun Oil Limited. According to Luther Smith, Sun Oil's engineering manager, each tank has a capacity of 90 thousand gallons and an overall length of 134 feet with a diameter of 11 feet. The total weight of each tank empty is 80 tons.
The dimensions and weight of the tanks made the lift a complex one, demanding great precision to ensure the safety of the crews taking part and the proper functioning of equipment, valued in hundreds of millions of dollars. Richard McCombe, APD's stevedoring and heavy equipment manager, noted that the process was "the biggest lift that's ever happened here." He described the magnitude of the operation, in which crane capacity was all important.
The company's Liebherr cranes played an essential role. "Without these new cranes we would have been unable to do that. We've had the privilege and the pleasure of training maintenance and operating teams. We now have well-trained operators, well-trained mechanics, and we have new equipment and we're excited about what it can do. It's a success story for The Bahamas and indicates good things for the future. We're not limited by the capacity of the port anymore," McCombe said.
For the all-important lift from the barge that brought the tanks from Tampa, Florida to Nassau, APD's largest crane was pressed into service. Acquired at a cost of $2 million in March of this year, the 370-ton behemoth is a mechanical marvel, which has a boom that stands 145 feet above ground, with a reach that can cover a ship 13 containers wide. McCombe said the new port has been designed to facilitate such large-scale services, as it is able to accommodate longer shipping vessels with deeper drafts.
"As you know the other ones, for the most part, they were on Bay Street or somewhere, so it was very difficult to move things that are this long," he said. Considerations of safety were a priority for APD, McCombe said: "Well, I think you always have to think about safety and it's a new challenge for us, everyone understanding what their roles were. Sun Oil has hired a company to do the ground transportation, with employees that are professionals at that. We did the first lift when we offloaded the barge.
We spent a lot of time talking about the safety and the exact procedures we are going to use, the communication systems and plan. Because it was our first time we wanted to discuss all the details. We're getting a little more experienced now and we understand it. So we just want to keep a good record. We want to keep it safe and do it right." McCombe added, "It's actually a little nerve wracking to see the length of that thing was suspended in the air.
But it went very, very smoothly, exactly as planned. From the engineering we knew exactly where to lift it, what angles the slings had to be at, the type of equipment we needed, the type of rigging, so we weren't guessing. We just had to basically follow the science of it and it went well." Philip Beyel, owner of Beyel Brothers Inc. of Cocoa, Florida, a company known for transporting mega loads, was hired by Sun Oil Limited to deal with the logistics of ground transport from NCP. Beyel expressed great admiration for the Nassau Container Port and its staff. "This port is awesome now," Beyel said. "In the early '90s and '80s, I used to come here with my father and we worked for BEC and we moved a lot of generators and heavy equipment out of this port. It was a lot tougher. Now that the new port and Richard (McCombe) is here, a great guy, with all his support and his crew, there are good people to work with to get the job done now."
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