NORTH AMERICA

GCT limps back from crane collapse

8 years ago

Vessel operations at GCT Vanterm at the Port of Vancouver are expected to fully resume by February 4 following the collapse of a GCT Vanterm Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company (ZPMC) ship-to-shore crane on the Ever Summit boxship after it was struck by the vessel earlier this week.

There were no injuries sustained as a result of the incident, confirmed a Global Container Terminals (GCT) spokesperson, stating that the vessel came into contact with the crane while berthing at approximately 4am on 28 January. The crane boom is resting on top of a container stack at the aft end of the vessel, but while damage to containers has been observed, “none of the containers in question contain hazardous cargo.”

Louanne Wong, director of marketing and communications at GCT, stated: “Since the incident on January 28, 2019, only the vessel operations have ceased, while the truck gate and rail operations remained unaffected.”

On the 29 January, The Beast, a 900t floating crane, and a second, 600t, floating crane, the Artic Tug, were brought in to support recovery operations, while the vessel is secured to the berthface with lines.

“Supported by external contractors, GCT Canada’s engineering and maintenance teams are continuing work on a comprehensive operations recovery,” said Ms Wong.

She said an exclusion zone established after the incident has remained in place to ensure the safety of everyone working at or interacting with the terminal and GCT is supporting Transport Canada and the Transportation Safety Board in their investigations.