North Star Port

E ARE ALWAYS THINKING about how to best plan for terminal operations into the future, and our future will without question involve loading and unloading ships. Out my office window, I can look out on two iconic steel dinosaurs, currently servicing the Coe Luisa, the first vessel of the season at Berth 1 of the Clure Public Marine Terminal. The terminal's twin gantry cranes are dino- saurs in two senses. They look like a pair of prehistoric reptiles; definitely an herbivore species, with all four legs solidly planted to counterbalance the long neck designed to browse the over- head canopy. Of course in the case of the cranes, the long neck provides vertical and horizontal reach for cargo handling. They are also dinosaurs in the sense that they represent a bygone era when such equipment was manufactured not just in the United States and the Midwest, but right here in Duluth. They were manufactured in the late 1950s at the Clyde Iron Works facility in Lincoln Park, once globally renowned for building lift equipment used to support U.S. efforts in World War II as well to complete such notable construction projects as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Panama Canal and the Empire State Building. While I could take off on the need for a federal industrial policy that would expand our domestic manufacturing base, I'll leave that for a future magazine. Unlike true dinosaurs, our dinosaurs are still fully alive and highly functional. For over 65 years, they have transferred all types of general and breakbulk cargo, as well as containers, onto and off of ships throughout the maritime shipping season. Once, in 1959, they even lifted a runaway locomotive from the water. Our cranes are also oddly modern in that they are elec- tric at a time when ports worldwide are shifting to electric lift equipment in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. They con- tinue to serve us well and they have proudly displayed our logo to generations of visiting ships and proud Duluthians. However, we are are concerned about our dinosaurs. They have been repaired and retrofitted throughout the decades. Over the past 20 years, they have been repainted, the cabs have been redone and modernized with new controls, and three different motors have been rebuilt. They are scheduled to be repainted again this summer. The necessary repair parts are no longer made, and as the decades progress, are increasingly difficult to source. Currently, the jib sheaves (pulley wheels at the crane tip) need replacing, but they must be specially fabri- cated because no replacements can be found. Any future motor rebuild will require a major archeological dig with an uncer- tain outcome. Further, our terminal has expanded to include additional heavy-lift berths across the slip from Berth 1, and out of reach of the venerable Clyde gantries, which can only move laterally along rails integral to Berth 1 and parallel to the dock face. In other words, the gantries can only serve Berth 1. Each crane has a lift capacity of 90 tons, and together they have a tandem lift capacity of 120 tons, a further limitation, since cargoes can exceed this capacity. As responsible stewards of our terminal assets, we must plan for the eventual demise of our beloved Clyde gantry cranes, even while carefully maintaining them to maximally extend their lifespan. We are in the midst of preparing federal grant appli- cations for major capital projects to improve our terminal, with the aim of preserving infrastructure ranging in age from tens of decades to over a century, replacing expensive equipment, and expanding our service offerings. Due to a unique federal grant opportunity, we will be seeking funds to help support the acquisition of two rubber-tired electric mobile harbor cranes that each feature a 200-ton lift capacity and an estimated min- imum 40-year life span. These modern cranes, manufacturered in Germany, present the benefit of being able to serve our entire terminal (rather than only one berth) and can relieve pressure on the Clyde gantries, helping to extend their lives. Hopefully, we will be successful in this application, and with continued proper maintenance of all equipment, we will have four oper- ational and iconic cranes for decades to come. W DULUTHPORT.COM | 1 THE HARBOR LINE Deb DeLuca Executive Director "FOR OVER 65 YEARS, [OUR CRANES] HAVE TRANSFERRED ALL TYPES OF GENERAL AND BREAKBULK CARGO AND CONTAINERS."

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