Port of West Sacramento adds LHM 420 for container handling

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The US Port of West Sacramento has bought a new Liebherr LHM 420 mobile harbour crane to enable it to handle intermodal containers for import and export beginning 2012.

US government federal stimulus funding contributed the Port of West Sacramento’s purchase with a $30 million funding package.

The new mobile harbour crane, valued at $5m, has a lifting capacity of 124t, (137USt) and stands over 100ft tall.

On 3 January the parts arrived in Sacramento on a cargo ship from Austria and were unloaded from the ship the next day. Construction of the harbour crane is expected to take several weeks.

The Port of West Sacramento has previously only handled bulk and bagged cargo shipments such as rice, fertiliser, lumber, wood, and cement.

Gene Endicott, the project’s communications representative, expects the crane to increase the variety of cargo coming through. The new crane is expected to handle containers, and larger shipments.

The change in cargo handling equipment should also mean within Sacramento’s ports and related industries.

The crane belongs to the new Marine Highway Container Barge Service, scheduled to launch later this year, operating between the ports of Oakland, West Sacramento and Stockton.

Enabling the Port of West Sacramento to handle larger individual shipments and containers, it is hoped the new Liebherr crane will help to reduce West Sacramento’s reliance on truck transport of goods, and consequently reduce goods traffic on Interstate 80.

Port of West Sacramento adds LHM 420 for container handling