High Winds Cause STS Crane Runaway at Port of Guam

The Port Authority of Guam and its partners are working to recover the use of its STS gantry cranes after a high-wind incident took all three out of service.

At about 2130 hours on Friday night, as gusty winds blew over the island, Gantry Crane 6 was "dislodged from its secure position" and rolled about 1,000 feet down the quayside rail system. Crane 6 then hit Gantry Cranes 5 and 4, causing them to also begin to roll several hundred feet down the dock. Crane 6 went off the rails after the impact, and Crane 5 had one single wheel go off as well.

Crane 4 remained on the rail system and appeared to be in the best shape for quick restoration to service. The port's experts attempted to conduct an inspection and begin work on Saturday, but persistent gusty winds made it too dangerous. Due to safety concerns, work was postponed until Sunday.

“Our immediate priority is to safely assess the condition of all three cranes and determine the steps necessary to restore operations,” Respicio said. “Our gantry crane mechanics, operations personnel and management team are mobilizing early
Saturday morning. We will focus our resources on safely returning available equipment to service while developing the operational plan necessary to support the upcoming vessel schedule.”

Efforts resumed Sunday, and the team reported some success. They used heavy equipment to roll Crane 5 away from Crane 4, making space for the work to restore Crane 4 to service.

So far, the port has not changed its cargo operations scheduled. The next two vessels to call both have ro/ro cargo, which can be offloaded without the gantry cranes.

The port says that gusts registering 100 mph were recorded by onboard wind gauges on the cranes at the time of the incident. The forecast called for 50 mph gusts.

The three Hitachi cranes involved in the incident are older and are already slated for replacement. The Port Authority of Guam secured a $60 million federal Port Infrastructure Development Program grant last year to pay for three newly-built STS cranes, to be matched with $15 million from the port's own reserves. The existing three in-service cranes date to the 1980s and will be removed. Two older, smaller cranes sit on the waterfront as well, but are out of commission and are awaiting demolition.

The port's operations are inherently strategic. Guam is a major outpost for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force, and 30 percent of the cargo that passes through the commercial port is related to military operations, the authority says.