VESSEL REVIEW | Tiejian Daqiaoqi 1 – Crane ship to serve bridge and windfarm construction projects

China Merchants Heavy Industry (Shenzhen) (CMHI) recently handed over a new crane vessel to local company the China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Group.

Built in compliance to China Classification Society (CCS) rules, the all-steel Tiejian Daqiaoqi 1 (“Iron Bridge 1”) has an LOA of 140 metres, a beam of 41 metres, a depth of eight metres, a design draught of 4.45 metres, a maximum draught of 5.2 metres, and accommodations for 25 personnel. It is the first purpose-built crane vessel in the owner’s fleet, hence the “1” in the name, as well as the owner’s largest crane vessel in terms of tonnage.

The vessel’s main pieces of equipment consist of double “L” boom cranes with a lifting capacity of 2,200 tonnes. The vessel can be fitted alternatively with hoisting cranes that can lift girders and other heavy objects to greater heights compared to the boom cranes, thus making the vessel ideal for offshore bridge construction work as well as offshore wind farm installation duties. The massive cranes are made of high-strength steel and are composed of interconnected rods, bolts, and flanges. This allows the cranes to be easily disassembled, stored, transported, and reassembled on site.

The vessel is designed to be capable of lifting operations even under Beaufort force six wind conditions (i.e. 22-plus knots mean wind speed), thanks in part to an array of eight electrically-powered anchoring and positioning winches, two 1,500kW full-rotating, fixed-pitch stern thrusters, and a 1,000kW bow thruster. This entire arrangement also guarantees safe operations in water depths of up to 50 metres besides reducing the vessel’s reliance on assistance from tugs.

Operations are aided by a 3D visual dynamic monitoring system that will allow the crew to conduct real-time assessments of the vessel’s condition as well as those of the surrounding environment. This ensures that the crane, the main diesel engines, and all other key components of the vessel are operating within acceptable parameters, which in turn guarantees the safety of the vessel and its occupants even when it is deployed offshore for extended periods.

The hull bottom is fitted with a high-pressure flushing system to reduce the risk of grounding when the vessel working in shallower waters.

See all the other news, reviews and features of this month’s Marine Projects Week right here.