Monsters of steel about to change cityscape

By ALAN PERROTT

Auckland is about to get a serious lift from the biggest cranes seen in this country.

The two Chinese-built silver and blue monsters are aboard the specialist ship Zhen Hua 2 outside the Waitemata Harbour.

But at 105m high they may still be visible over the slopes of Rangitoto Island.

The ship is expected to dock at Fergusson wharf on Thursday, when the complex job of bringing them ashore will begin.

Everything about the cranes, dubbed simply G and H, is big.

Each weighs almost 1100 tonnes - more than two fully laden jumbo jets - and can lift 60 tonnes: more than 10 fully grown elephants.

They cost $18.5 million, are 28-storeys high and have a reach of 44m.

The delivery ship carries 2000 tonnes of ballast water to cope with the high and heavy load.

Sandy Gibson, general manager of Axis Intermodal, which handles the port's container traffic, said the cranes were needed to work the extra-large container ships that would begin arriving in Auckland this year.

These ships include the P&O Nedlloyd Remuera, which is one-third bigger than the largest container ships already using the port and was in town for a naming ceremony in February.

A further 1m will have to be dredged from the 11.3m-deep Rangitoto Channel to allow these ships into the harbour.

Mr Gibson said the new cranes were faster than the smaller German models now in use and could lift two containers at once.

They were built at the Zhenhua Port Machinery Company in Shanghai and are expected to begin work in three weeks.

nzherald.co.nz/marine