Recently, Barnhart was called on to assemble and erect a 300’ tall gantry crane (Goliath) with a 450’ span and 660 tons of capacity in Pascagoula, MS. Barnhart’s scope included ground assembly and welding as well as the erection of the legs, main girder, trolleys and the service crane. The legs weighed 560 tons each and were erected with several shipyard cranes and Barnhart’s CC1200. The legs were then guyed off and two 450 ton strand jacks were mounted on temporary cantilever supports at the top of each leg. The hinged leg brace was restrained with a vertical balancing winch to eliminate movement in the hinge. The upper trolley with the operator’s cabin was installed on the ground causing the total lift weight of the girder to top out at 1,350 tons. A test lift was performed by adding 150 tons of test weights to the girder. Barnhart then proceeded to hoist the heaviest load ever lifted by the company.

The lift proceeded slowly and safely. Once the girder was lifted to the top, every bolt on the fixed leg was installed in three hours. Later, the lower trolley was hoisted using the same winches that were used to guy the legs.
A big thanks to George Allen and crew with a hats off to Jeff Ferguson, Steve Rochelle, Steve Weakley, Darrick Bachelor and James Davis for safely completing a difficult and complicated project.

Equipment Used in this Project

• Crawler Cranes: Demag CC2000 330t / 440t
• Strand Jacks