Construction Equipment Guide
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Fort Washington, PA 19034
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Hopper barges were attached to the deck barge transporting the wash tower so that tug boats could assist guiding the vessel.
Tue August 30, 2016 - Southeast Edition #18
Recently, Mammoet successfully coordinated the arrival and off load of Sasol's two largest vessels, the wash tower and reactor, scheduled for the Ethane Cracker and Derivatives project in Louisiana. The reactor, the heaviest vessel weighing more than 3 million lbs. (1.3 million kg), and the wash tower, the tallest vessel at 320 ft. (97.5 m), were lowered and secured on deck barges prepared with self propelled modular transporters (SPMTs). Hopper barges were attached to the deck barge transporting the wash tower so that tug boats could assist guiding the vessel, which is extended an additional 30 ft. (9.1 m) on each end, through a railroad bridge on the 3 mi. (4.8 km) route.
Once each vessel arrived at the Westlake dock, they were rolled off of the barge on the SPMTs. They will be staged there until March 2017 wherein the vessels will be transported to the project site and installed with Mammoet's MSG-80, 3,600 ton (3,265 t) capacity ring crane.
The new ethane cracker will have an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tons (1.3 million tons) of ethylene, feeding six chemical manufacturing plants. The facility is expected to be commissioned in 2018.