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| ConnectOregon funds improve Port's efficiency |
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The 16-story crane passes under the Longview Bridge.
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Standing at 16 stories tall, as wide as two city blocks and weighing in at 1,400 tons, the Port of Portland’s newest crane dwarfed the trees, hills and buildings that it passed by as it floated down the Columbia River on its way to its new home on Portland’s docks at Terminal 6.
The post-Panamax crane, (referring to ships that are too wide to fit through the Panama Canal), was purchased by the Port of Portland using funds from the Oregon Department of Transportation-managed ConnectOregon program.
ConnectOregon is a lottery-bond-based initiative first approved by the 2005 Oregon Legislature to invest in air, rail, marine and transit infrastructure. The first major funding initiative targeted at multimodal (non-highway) transportation, ConnectOregon is helping make the most of the public’s investment in Oregon’s transportation system.
Ordered a year and a half ago and constructed by Zhenhau Port Machinery Company in Shanghai, China, the new crane took a month-long, 5,800-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean to reach Portland. It is the Port's fourth post-Panamax crane.
The Port's container cranes handled $4.5 billion worth of goods in 2007 ($896 million in exports, $3.642 billion in imports). The value of containerized imports through Portland has doubled in the last two years. Containers are loaded with a wide variety of commodities including inbound consumer goods and outbound agricultural products. Hundreds of businesses in Oregon and throughout the region depend on the cranes for the movement of their goods--both import and export.
The new crane will improve operating efficiency at the Port’s Terminal 6 in order to help export/import shippers in Oregon remain competitive in global markets. It will allow for faster loading and unloading of vessels. The Port estimates that this crane will decrease loading/unloading time by 2 hours per ship and increase Terminal 6 productivity by 6.5-9 percent.
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