The movement and replacement of process plant components are a familiar sight in the Texas Gulf Coast region, however, Deep South Crane & Rigging took part in an unusual nine-month project. The company was brought onto a project by an EPC contractor to haul and lift two trains of fractionation tower components. 

Specifically, the job required the transport of the eight components from the fabricator shop to the job site, on and off barges, and along roadways, including across an interstate. These included a debutanizer (106.5 tons), depropanizer (235.4 tons), splitter (245.8 tons), and deethanizer (572.4 tons), for each of the two trains over the course of nine months.

Deep South used multiple pieces of equipment for the move, including a 9-axle-line Scheuerle Highway Extendable trailer, two 8-axle-line Goldhofer THP/DL Dual Lane transport trailers, and two double-wide18-axle-line Scheuerle SPMT trailers for over the road transport. Before and during the move, Deep South coordinated traffic control and logistics with multiple organisations.

The lift and set of the components at the process plant would take some additional creativity and planning. The depropanizers and splitter vessels were particularly challenging because due to the weight of each component, requiring the super lift capabilities of the 660-ton Liebherr LR-1600/2 crawler crane with 661 kips of counterweight as well as the 1,800-ton VersaCrane TC-28000 high capacity mobile crane.

The heaviest component was the 185’ long, 1,262,000 pounds (572.4-ton) deethanizer vessel, which required the VersaCrane TC-28000 with the LR-1600. The entire haul and lift job was safely completed within the required nine month schedule.