Millwright Done Right: Emergency Removal of Damaged Conveyor System

At Terminal 5 of the Port of Portland, one of the conveyors that feeds Portland Bulk Terminals’ ship loaders suffered a catastrophic failure. The conveyor was unsafe to operate, and as a result, Portland Bulk Terminals was unable to load out vessels bound for ocean voyages. Portland Bulk Terminals required an emergency demolition of the conveyor. The demolition needed to happen quickly to keep Terminal operations running—and to keep them running safely.

Enter Omega Morgan’s Portland millwright services team. They mobilized within days to begin the careful and strategic planning this unique project required.

INDUSTRIAL MILLWRIGHT SERVICES BY THE EXPERTS

At first, the full extent of the failure wasn’t apparent. The conveyor structure was a series of 95’ bridge spans that weighed 130,000 lbs each. Because of bridge spans’ age, degradation, and the failure itself, it was difficult to know how strong the remaining spans were. Omega Morgan’s millwright team consulted several specialized engineers to develop a sound lifting and handling plan for safely removing all of the broken conveyor sections. All in all, our team of eight millwright specialists would need to remove eight of the concrete bridge spans, and seven concrete support bents.

A SAFETY-FIRST APPROACH TO MILLWRIGHT SERVICES

The first thing our millwright crew had to do was establish safe access to the dock. This involved erecting shorting towers under the first bridge span so the electrician could safely access the electrical control room—the electrical demolition was the first step in the overall demolition process.

Once that was completed, the Omega Morgan crew stabilized the broken conveyor section and removed all loose or suspended components. Once these two critical parts of the project were done, the major removal work could begin safely.

Our millwright crew removed the conveyor belts, then the conveyor frames, and finally the handrail. The conveyor spans were unseated from their pedestals using hydraulic jacks. They were then removed to a barge using two barge-mounted cranes.

This job had rather unique challenges and circumstances; the bridge spans were pre-stressed concrete, which have very particular requirements for safe handling. Additionally, these lifts required a two-crane pick, which our millwright team completed using two barge-mounted cranes.

MILLWRIGHT DONE RIGHT: SAFETY, PRECISION, AND EFFICIENCY

After all 14 components were safely removed, our millwright crews also provided extensive cleanup for Portland Bulk Terminals. They were extremely happy with our work: our millwright services team got the job done three weeks ahead of schedule, with zero safety incidents—true to the Omega Morgan way.