News
An Award Winning Multi-Scope Lift and Set
Posted: 09/26/2023
As part of a petrochemical facility expansion in Texas, the client needed more than 60 pieces of equipment of various weights and sizes moved and placed in tight confines—in just four months. With very little room for errors or delays, and no time to spare, Deep South’s skilled engineers and managers put together an impressive engineering plan to facilitate a safe and efficient effort.
The key to this successful project was continuous communication between the client and our accomplished project management and field teams.
First Reactions
The endeavor included the move and lift of four reactor vessels, each around 200’ long and 260,000 lbs. These vessels had to be transported from the laydown yard about 200-300 yards from the hook.
To accomplish this task, Deep South relied on an 18-axle-line Scheuerle SPMT to move each of the vessels into position and then a 440-ton Terex-Demag CC-2400-1 crawler crane to lift them into position.
Modules in Motion
One of the most challenging aspects of the project was the engineering and rigging of the "pancake modules," each weighing 100,000-120,000 lbs. Specialized equipment such as a customized jack-and-slide system helped move systems, such as pumps, into areas with tight clearances.
Placing the heavy "pancakes" with varying centers of gravity also required some customized techniques.
Conventional rigging systems would have required assembly and disassembly multiple times to change the inserts and slings for each module. Instead, Deep South deployed its Module Lifting System designed to set multiple objects of different widths, lengths, and centers of gravity with the same rigging. With a 100-ton lifting capacity, this in-house designed, engineered, fabricated, and tested system includes specialized spreader bars and built-in hydraulic cylinders for easy adjustments. The remotely operated system is multi-tiered and composed of six (6) adjustable hydraulic cylinders, one (1) hydraulically variable modular bar in the transverse direction, and two (2) multi-holed modular bars in the longitudinal direction.
The modules were lifted and placed safely, efficiently and ahead of schedule.
Safety Excellence
Other pieces of equipment that had to be lifted and placed included stair modules, each weighing around 30,000 lbs, a 38’ tall tower, small vertical reactors, columns, drums, an elevated flare, thermal oxidizer, fractionator reboiler, offgas scrubbers, wastewater reboiler and melt coolers.
With several Scheuerle SPMTs moving pieces into position, Deep South used a 1,000-ton VersaCrane™ CC-12000 high capacity crawler crane, a 800-ton Tadano-Demag AC-700, a 400-ton Terex-Demag AC-350, and a 500-ton Liebherr LTM-1400-7.1 to lift the many pieces of varying size and weight, as well as a customized jack-and-slide system to help move objects into areas with tight clearances.
The entire project move, lift and set effort was completed two weeks ahead of schedule with no injuries. Deep South was subsequently nominated for and won first place “Best of the Best” from the Houston Business Roundtable Safety Excellence Award program.
Congratulations to the team for completing another successful, safe and well-planned project and for winning HBR's Best of the Best award.
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About Deep South: Deep South Crane & Rigging is a leading provider of heavy lift and transport solutions in the refining, chemical, and energy sectors and strives to provide its customers the best tools to complete the task at hand and is home of the VersaCrane fleet. The firm offers a complete range of services, from bare crane rental to turn-key heavy lift and transport solutions to clients in North and South America. It operates out of 7 locations including Baton Rouge, LA; Sulphur, LA; New Orleans, LA; Dequincy, LA; Beaumont, TX; Houston, TX; and Catlettsburg, KY. Sister company DS Americas operates out of Bogota, Colombia. Recent recognition includes 2018 Houston Business Roundtable (HBR) Best of the Best Safety Excellence Award, 2019 Mentor Award, and 2020 Finalist; 2018 Industrial Safety Training Council (ISTC) Safety Achievement Award; 2018, 2020 and 2021 Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance (GBRIA) Contractor Safety Excellence Award, Crane & Rigging; 2019 Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance (GBRIA) Workforce Development Best of Division OneAward; 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association (SCRA) Safety Award; 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 Louisiana Worker's Compensation Corporation (LWCC) Safest 70); 2021 Texas Mutual Platinum Safety Partner Award; and 2021 Safety Council of Southwest Louisiana (SWLA) Silver Level Contractor Safety Performance Award.
A High Pressure Exchange
Posted:08/09/2024
Assembling the 1,500T VersaCrane™ TC-24000 off site and moving it via SPMT saved this client 15 days of downtime and allowed the refinery unit to run at full capacity until unit shutdown. During the scheduled outage, Deep South was tasked to replace two coke drums, each weighed 452,800 lbs and were 19’-2” outside diameter and 96’-0” long and were comparable in size and weight to the old drums.
Safety Source: OSHA's Safe + Sound Week
Posted:08/08/2024
The Occupational Safety & Health Administration's Safe + Sound Week is a nationwide event to recognize the successes of businesses that have adopted programs to improve workplace safety and health. This year's Safe + Sound Week will be held August 12-18, 2024, and focus on Job Hazard Analysis (JHAs). Deep South is pleased to participate in this annual event again.