NAWILIWILI — A Gay & Robinson worker was injured Tuesday afternoon, and remained hospitalized Wednesday with non-life-threatening injuries, after a crane used to load sugar onto ships collapsed at Nawiliwili Harbor. Clem Lum, G&R treasurer, said in a telephone interview
NAWILIWILI — A Gay & Robinson worker was injured Tuesday afternoon, and remained hospitalized Wednesday with non-life-threatening injuries, after a crane used to load sugar onto ships collapsed at Nawiliwili Harbor.
Clem Lum, G&R treasurer, said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon that G&R operations personnel were at the harbor Wednesday afternoon trying to determine the best way to remove the crane from the deck and hold of the sugar ship “Moku Pahu,” which could not be moved because of the crane.
Robert Crowell, Nawiliwili harbormaster, said one of the cables on the gantry crane broke and the crane toppled onto the deck and into the hold of the sugar ship around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
One of the options that was being considered Wednesday was to cut the crane away from the building and move the ship to another pier while the crane is cleared from its deck, Crowell said.
Tammy Mori, state Department of Transportation spokesperson, said via e-mail that Matson Navigation, owner of the Moku Pahu, is considering bringing in a 70-ton crane to lift the crane arm off the vessel. DOT Harbors Division staff are analyzing the Nawiliwili piers to make sure they can handle the weight of the crane.
The piece of the arm on the ship should not be very heavy, however, the exact weight is unknown at this time, Mori said.
The intent is to also dismantle the piece of the arm that is in the hold of the ship and leave it in place, she said. This would lighten the weight of the arm that the crane would be required to lift off the vessel.
The Moku Pahu needs to be moved to Pier 1 to make room for a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship. The “Pride of America” arrives for its weekly overnight stay early this morning, and Crowell said his office was busy Wednesday trying to juggle that schedule.
When the cruise-ship industry was on the rise and the sugar business on the wane, the crane, situated close to the water at Pier 2, was seen as a potential hindrance to cruise-ship operations in the harbor.
The crane needed to remain in place as sugar was still being shipped off-island via a conveyer-belt system from a weighing and storage facility owned by G&R above the harbor, on Niumalu Road adjacent to Garden Isle Disposal headquarters.
The name of the injured sugar worker is reportedly John Medeiros.
