FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 13, 2006
Contact: Ann Grimm, Port of Bellingham, (360) 676-2500, (360) 739-4373 cell
Dick Perry, Georgia Pacific, (360) 441-0259
GP Barge Unloading Crane Will Move To Oregon
[Bellingham, Wash.] Georgia Pacific’s large dockside crane, which was built in Austria, will be put on a barge and shipped to its new home at a GP plant on the Columbia River. This 100 ton, 75 feet tall crane was purchased by GP in 1999 and used to unload barges of wood chips.
Since the Port of Bellingham purchased the entire GP site in Bellingham, the Port and GP have been working cooperatively to prepare the site for redevelopment. The operation of moving the crane onto the barge will take most of the afternoon and can be viewed from the Roeder Avenue Bridge.
Special crews designated to move the big Liebherr barge crane have been working this week to set up land-based equipment that will be used to move the crane onto an ocean-going barge. The final movement of the crane from the dock to barge is planned to take place on Saturday. Bigge Crane of Auburn, WA, and Hollinger Construction of Longview, WA, are the subcontractors hired to provide the equipment and rigging for the move.
Once aboard the barge, Foss Tug and Barge Company will transport the crane out of Puget Sound and down the coast, to its new home at the Georgia Pacific Mill in Wauna, Oregon, located approximately 25 miles up the Columbia River from Astoria as part of a modernization project in their chip unloading facility.
The Liebherr crane was the 3rd generation of crane located on the dock for the same purpose. The first crane, a Colby crane, was in place from the 1940’s until the early 1980’s and then replaced by a Caterpillar crane, followed by the Liebherr crane in 1999. Built in Austria, the 25 ton lifting capacity Liebherr crane was originally used to unload the barges of wood chips that supplied the pulp mill. It operated for three years until the mill shutdown in March, 2001.
Weather and conditions permitting, the move is expected to take place on Saturday afternoon. The Whatcom Waterway is not scheduled to be closed to boat traffic during this time.
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