Roll-Lift USA has finished its two-year role at an LNG terminal expansion project at Elba Island in Savannah, Georgia, USA.

The first challenge to overcome was the low weight limit and deteriorating condition of the only access bridge to the island. This posed a huge problem for the delivery of the 9,300 poles and 71 process/pipe rack modules. Roll-Lift USA decided to barge the modules from the offsite fabrication facility, located 10 miles (16 km) away along the Savannah River, to the project site.

68 SPMTs and 72 axle lines were used to roll the modules onto 25 barges at the fabrication yard; the trailers were used again to offload the cargoes at the project site. 85 ft (25.9 m) ro-ro ramps were installed to overcome poor ground conditions at the roll-off site.

Poor ground conditions also affected lifting operations on site, according to crane supervisor Gary Lyons. "The ground was terrible, which made it difficult to make the many necessary movements with the cranes. This also required a lot of coordination, since space was often tight,” he explained.

Lyons said that 840 modules were lifted and positioned during the project, 540 of which weighed in excess of 25 tonnes. Roll-Lift USA used seven of its heavy lift crawler cranes to complete the task.

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