Airliner fuselages, power generation components are mainstays By Peter A. Buxbaum, AJOTThe port of New York and New Jersey is best known for handling containers and automobiles. But if you watch a ro/ro vessel being offloaded, you will see, not only motor vehicles being driven off, but also a large variety of of oversize cargoes that cannot fit on container ships being offloaded. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey would like to grow the project and heavy lift business at the port. The good news is that while other cargo volumes tanked over the last two years in the wake of the Great Recession, project and heavy lift cargoes have held steady. “Ro/ro ships are often used because they call on the same areas in Europe and East Asia where these pieces are manufactured,” said Bob Gaffney, the Port Authority’s manager of industry relations. “There is also a lack of breakbulk ships. Sometimes heavy pieces are put on flat wracks and placed on container ships.” Atlantic Container Line, which deploys dual purpose container-ro/ro vessels, plays an important role delivering oversize and heavy lift pieces originating in Europe to the port. Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines, the ro/ro carrier, is similarly situated to deliver the same kind of cargo from the Far East. Much of the project and oversize cargo handled at the port are components for power plants such as transformers and generators. “We are bringing in a lot of power equipment power on specialty ships or ro/ro ships,” said Gaffney. “This stuff goes out by specialized motor carrier or by rail.” These cargoes and other heavy and oversize pieces, whether they be yachts or helicopters, arrive at the port on an irregular basis. But there is at least one oversize category that is offloaded at the port regularly, sometimes monthly or even weekly. These are airplane fuselages manufactured in Europe are delivered by ACL, offloaded at the port, and then placed on special vehicles for delivery to a Bombardier Inc. assembly plant near Montreal, related Bill Cronin, the Port Authority’s manager of shipper sales. “The airplane fuselages come in at least monthly,” said Cronin. “They are used to manufacture Canadair Regional Jets.” CRJs are a line of 50- to 100-seat Bombardier airliners. “They are driven off the ro/ro ship and then they have a specialized heavy hauler trucking company pick them up and deliver them to Canada,” said Cronin. “They are loaded on the ship onto a form of chassis that is designed for heavy types of cargo.” The port is equipped with dedicated berths that can handle heavy cargoes. “Berths are normally built to carry 500,000 pounds per square foot,” said Gaffney. “We have two berths in Port Newark that have been strengthened to handle 750,000 pounds per square foot. These berths also have on-dock rail so that we have the capability to discharge the cargo directly from the ship to a rail car.” “These double rail tracks leading away from the berths have a wide radius so the cars can make the turn,” added Cronin. “Some of the rail cars are extra long in order to accommodate the cargo being carried. Some of the rail cars are articulated, which means that the wheels on the rail car can turn so the car can make the curve and stay on the tracks.” The on-dock rail came in very handy when New Jersey Transit, the local commuter line that connects the northern half of the state to New York City, took delivery of a new set of engines manufactured in Japan. The equipment was craned directly from the ship to the rail tracks and driven away. For some heavy cargoes the berthing and on-dock rail are not necessarily. Cronin related how a recent delivery had two yachts, one 65 feet and the other 58 feet, were craned directly off the vessel and into the water. On other occasions, shrink wrapped helicopters have been flown off the port. For some of the larger pieces of oversize equipment, stevedores have taken to use terminal container cranes to offload them, said Cronin, rather than calling in the