Bigge to Move 10,000 Tons at Power Plant

Enlarge Image A Manitowoc 2250 with Maxer attachment hoists one of the 175-ton heat steam recovery generator modules. A Manitowoc 2250 Series III acts as a tailing crane.

May 24, 2006 — By the time Bigge Crane & Rigging of San Leandro, Calif., fulfills its year-long contract on the construction site of Inland Empire Energy Center in Romoland, Riverside County, Calif., it will have transported and lifted a total of 10,000 tons worth of components.

Inland Empire Energy Center is a billion-dollar combine cycle gas turbine power station being built by General Electric (GE), who hired Bigge to supply and manage all of the major crane requirements, over-the-road transportation, and rigging of all centerline equipment on this project, which began in 2005 and is slated to come online in the summer of 2008.

 

Throughout the course of this project, Bigge will have transported, lifted, and installed the following equipment:

• 36 heat steam recovery generator (HSRG) modules (18 on each unit; each module weighing up to 175 tons)
• Six steam drums (three on each unit, and each drum weighing up to 125 tons)
• Two generator step-up transformers (250 tons)
• Centerline components, including two generators (355 tons each), two high-pressure steam turbines (175 tons each), two low-pressure steam turbines (various components), and two combustion turbines (380 tons each).

Since starting its contract in March, Bigge has delivered 18 HRSG modules to the site and set 18 of them in place. Following completion of Unit 1 (18 modules and three steam drums), HRSG operations will immediately shift to Unit 2. Centerline components for Unit 1 are scheduled for delivery to the site starting in July 2006. Centerline operations for both units are scheduled for completion in spring of 2007.

 

Transportation

For all the HRSG and steam drum components, Bigge is responsible for offloading them from rail cars at a siding in Riverside, Calif., nearly 30 miles from the site. Two customized 10-dolly transporters are used to haul them to the site. The maximum number allowed by California Highway Patrol is five loads per week. Hauling is restricted to between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. every night between Sunday and Thursday. It requires up to five California Highway Patrol escorts to guide the loads through downtown Riverside and south down the highway.

 

For the centerline equipment, Bigge's work begins at the Port of Long Beach, approximately 100 miles from the site. Here it receives the loads and transports them to site. Six loads, each weighing up to 380 tons, need to be transported on beams and dollies, in configurations up to 300 feet long with 20 dollies. Prime movers will both push and pull the loads. The low-pressure steam turbines can be transported on conventional trailers.

 

At the site, all components will be transloaded to Bigge's self-propelled modular trailers (SPMTs) for positioning under an elevated hydraulic gantry system that Bigge will engineer and fabricate.

The original plan envisaged all components being brought directly to the site by rail. The discovery of capacity and clearance limitations on the local tracks meant that a road-based solution had to be adopted instead.

 

Cranes

For the major lifting work on site, Bigge is using three of its large lattice boom crawler cranes. A Manitowoc 2250 lattice boom crawler with Maxer 2000 attachment, which raises its base capacity to 500 tons, is used to hoist the HSRG modules. This crane is fitted with 140 ft of main boom and 80 ft of luffing jib. A Manitowoc 2250 Series III (300-ton capacity) with 150 ft of main boom is used for tailing these loads. A Manitowoc M250 (300-ton capacity) is used with 220 ft of main boom to erect the HRSG casing.
 

For general lifting duties, Bigge also has three 80-ton capacity Terex rough-terrain cranes on site.

 

Centerline rigging

The elevated gantry system, used for the offload and setting of all turbines and generators, incorporates Bigge's new Hydrospex SBL 1100 telescopic hydraulic gantry. The full-powered SBL 1100 has a lifting capacity of 1100 tons capacity. At its fully extended height of more than 41 ft, it can lift 440 tons.

The lifting capacity of the SBL 1100 at higher reaches enables Bigge to solve a logistical problem. The schedule requires that, on each of the two units, the generator is set before the combustion turbine arrives on site. Because access is restricted, the 380-ton combustion turbine has to be hoisted over the generator and steam turbines already in place.

 

Mounted on top of the SBL 1100 will be a computer-controlled Hydrospex strand jacking system. In conjunction with a swivel bar, the strand jacks will be used to offload each component, raise them to the required height and rotate them through 90 degrees for translation and final set. Bigge completes its rigging and transportation work at Inland Empire in spring 2007, although its cranes are scheduled to remain on site until close to project completion in 2008.