Weeks 533 is a 500-short-ton (454 t) capacity Clyde Iron Works model 52 barge-mounted crane which is the largest revolving floating crane on the East Coast of the United States.[1] It was originally ordered for bridge construction and has since been used in several notable heavy lifts.
History
The floating barge-crane, originally named Marine Boss, was built for Murphy Pacific Marine. The barge was assembled by Zidell Explorations from scrapped ship steel in Oregon[2] in 1966 and fitted in San Francisco with a heavy 500-ton revolving crane made by Clyde Iron Works[3] to perform the heavy girder and deck-section lifts for construction of the 1967 San Mateo-Hayward Bridge.[4][5] At the time it was the largest barge crane in the western United States.[6]
In the 1970s, Marine Boss was sold to J. Ray McDermott & Co., who had introduced the first 500-ton floating cranes for offshore platform construction in 1965[7] and were operating a similar fleet of barge-cranes under the McDermott Derrick Barge (DB) class.[8] McDermott would later sell it for scrap in 1988 to Weeks Marine in New Jersey,[9] who renamed it the Weeks 533 and refurbished it from 1997-2000. Weeks 533 is considered the flagship of the Weeks fleet.[10]
One of the tugboats returning Weeks 533 from Albany to New Jersey collided with the moored 750t crane barge N181 (aka Hank Hummel) near the Tappan Zee Bridge at night in heavy fog on 12 March 2016. That tug, the Specialist, subsequently sank, killing all three sailors.[11][12] Although the mate, who was at the helm of Specialist, initially jumped clear from the stricken tug onto N181, he returned to help free a trapped crewmate and all hands aboard subsequently drowned.[13]
Capacity
The Clyde Iron Works Model 52-DE crane[14] can lift 500 short tons (454 t) using the main hoist on a 210-foot (64 m) boom at any point in the crane's revolution; capacity rises to 600 short tons (544 t) when using the main hoist oriented astern. The capacity of the middle lift is 150 000 lbs, of the small lift on the top of the boom is 50 000 lbs. Motive power for the main hoist is provided by a Caterpillar 3412 V-12 diesel engine, and electric power for the barge is provided by a Caterpillar 3406 I-6 diesel generator set.
^Newell, Gordon R (1976). "Maritime Events of 1966". The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 1966–1976. Seattle: Superior Publishing. ISBN978-0875642208.
^Mangus, Alfred R. (30 August 2008). California Orthotropic Bridge Bus Tour(PDF). Orthotropic Bridge Conference. Sacramento, California. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
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