Offloading Giant Cranes from a Ship – Here’s How It’s Done [VIDEO]

Four Super Post-Panamax cranes arrive in Houston on May 5, 2015. Photo: Port of Houston Authority.

The arrival of four new Super Post-Panamax container cranes at the Port of Houston had a lot of people wondering exactly how they are going to offload the cranes from the deck of the heavy lift ship to dock.

Well, the answer is fairly simple: a combination of wheels, rails and pulling. Just think of a train on railroad tracks.

The below video shows exactly how they do it:

And as you can see from the photo below taken this week at the Port of Houston, crews are already laying down the tracks to unload the 1,500 ton cranes at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal. We’re told the offloading operation is expected to begin on Saturday and will take a few days.

SEE ALSO: Giant Cranes Arrive in Houston Ship Channel

Subscribe for Daily Maritime Insights

Sign up for gCaptain’s newsletter and never miss an update

— trusted by our 107,753 members