''Weeks 533'' is a capacity

Clyde Iron Works The Clyde Iron Works was a Scottish-based ironworking plant which operated from 1786 to 1978. Clyde Iron occupied a large site near the Carmyle and Tollcross areas of Glasgow. The plant was built by William Cadell (1737–1819) and Thomas Edin ...

model 52 barge-mounted crane which is the largest revolving floating crane on the East Coast of the United States. It was originally ordered for bridge construction and has since been used in several notable heavy lifts.

History

The floating barge-crane, originally named ''Marine Boss'', was built for Murphy Pacific Marine. The barge was assembled by Zidell Explorations from scrapped ship steel in Oregon in 1966 and fitted in San Francisco with a heavy 500-ton revolving crane made by Clyde Iron Works to perform the heavy girder and deck-section lifts for construction of the 1967 San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. At the time it was the largest barge crane in the western United States. In the 1970s, ''Marine Boss'' was sold to J. Ray McDermott & Co., who had introduced the first 500-ton floating cranes for offshore platform construction in 1965 and were operating a similar fleet of barge-cranes under the McDermott Derrick Barge (DB) class. McDermott would later sell it for scrap in 1988 to

Weeks Marine Weeks Marine is a marine construction and dredging contractor based in Cranford, NJ. It was founded by Francis Weeks and his son Richard B. Weeks in 1919 as the Weeks Stevedoring Company. Company Weeks has three key divisions—Construction, D ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, who renamed it the ''Weeks 533'' and refurbished it from 1997-2000. ''Weeks 533'' is considered the flagship of the Weeks fleet. One of the tugboats returning ''Weeks 533'' from Albany to New Jersey collided with the moored 750t crane barge ''N181'' (aka ''Hank Hummel'') near the Tappan Zee Bridge at night in heavy fog on 12 March 2016. That tug, the ''Specialist'', subsequently sank, killing all three sailors. Although the mate, who was at the helm of ''Specialist'', initially jumped clear from the stricken tug onto ''N181'', he returned to help free a trapped crewmate and all hands aboard subsequently drowned.

Capacity

The Clyde Iron Works Model 52-DE crane can lift using the main hoist on a boom at any point in the crane's revolution; capacity rises to when using the main hoist oriented astern. The capacity of the middle lift is 150 000 lbs, of the small lift on the top of the boom is 50 000 lbs. Motive power for the main hoist is provided by a Caterpillar 3412 V-12 diesel engine, and electric power for the barge is provided by a Caterpillar 3406 I-6 diesel generator set.

Bridges built

Rio Vista Bridge The Rio Vista Bridge (officially the Helen Madere Memorial Bridge) is a continuous truss span with a vertical-lift bridge in the middle which carries California State Route 12 across the Sacramento River at Rio Vista, California. The present br ...

replacement span (1967) *

San Mateo–Hayward Bridge The San Mateo–Hayward Bridge (commonly called the San Mateo Bridge) is a bridge crossing the American state of California's San Francisco Bay, linking the San Francisco Peninsula with the East Bay. The bridge's western end is in Foster Cit ...

(1967) *

San Diego–Coronado Bridge The San Diego–Coronado Bridge, commonly referred to as the Coronado Bridge, is a prestressed concrete/steel girder bridge, girder fixed-link bridge crossing over San Diego Bay, linking San Diego with Coronado, California. It is signed as part ...

(1969) * Queensway Twin Bridges (1971), near at the

Port of Long Beach The Port of Long Beach, administered as the Harbor Department of the City of Long Beach, is a container port in the United States, which adjoins Port of Los Angeles. Acting as a major gateway for US–Asian trade, the port occupies of land wi ...

Fremont Bridge (Portland) The Fremont Bridge is a steel tied-arch bridge over the Willamette River located in Portland, Oregon, United States. It carries Interstate 405 and US 30 traffic between downtown and North Portland where it intersects with Interstate 5. It has ...

(1973) File:San Diego-Coronado Bridge Construction (15556-12).jpg, alt=Constructing the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, Murphy Pacific's ''Marine Boss'' at work on the

(c.1968) File:K-81565 Sealab III.jpg, alt=Black and white close-up of rotating crane barge, ''Marine Boss'' moving SEALAB III near

San Clemente Island San Clemente Island (Tongva: ''Kinkipar''; Spanish: ''Isla de San Clemente'') is the southernmost of the Channel Islands of California. It is owned and operated by the United States Navy, and is a part of Los Angeles County. It is administer ...

(Dec 1968) File:Space Shuttle Enterprise lifted onto deck of the U.S.S. Intrepid (7402541782).jpg, alt=Weeks 533, a crane barge, lifts the Space Shuttle Enterprise, ''Weeks 533'' lifts the ''Enterprise'' onto (2012) File:USAirways-1549 lifting out of Hudson.jpg, alt=US Airways Flight 1549 is lifted from the Hudson River,

US Airways Flight 1549 US Airways Flight 1549 was a regularly scheduled US Airways flight from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte and Seattle, in the United States. On January 15, 2009, the Airbus A320 serving the flight struck a flock of birds shortl ...

Notable heavy lifts

UGM-73 Poseidon The UGM-73 Poseidon missile was the second US Navy nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) system, powered by a two-stage solid-fuel rocket. It succeeded the UGM-27 Polaris beginning in 1972, bringing major advances in warheads ...

missile test facility structural members at

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city. Originally, Hunters Point was a commercial shipyard established i ...

(1967) * SEALAB III, off the coast of

(1969) * Pier protection system for the Tappan Zee Bridge (2000) * Cleanup of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are the hundreds of sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may also refer to: Buildings * World Trade Center (1973–2001), a building complex that was destroyed during the September 11 at ...

in New York City from the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

(2001), moored below

55 Water Street 55 Water Street is a skyscraper on the East River in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 53-story, structure was completed in 1972. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the ...

. * The capsized ''MV Stellamare'' at the

Port of Albany–Rensselaer The Port of Albany–Rensselaer, widely known as the Port of Albany, is a port of entry in the United States with facilities on both sides of the Hudson River in Albany, New York, Albany and Rensselaer, New York, Rensselaer, New York (state), New ...

(2003, as a team with Donjon's ''

Chesapeake 1000 ''Chesapeake 1000'' (formerly ''Sun 800'') is a heavy lift sheerleg crane ship, owned by Donjon Marine Co., capable of lifting . It is one of the largest boomable stiff-leg-derrick barges on the eastern seaboard of the United States. The bar ...

'') * The downed

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

hull of

(2009) from the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...

G-BOAD on Pier 86 (2008) and ''Enterprise'' (2012) onto the

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum The ''Intrepid'' Museum (originally the ''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum) is a military and maritime history museum in New York City, United States. It is located at Pier 86 at 46th Street (Manhattan), 46th Street, along the Hudson River, ...

* The old main span of the East 78th Street pedestrian bridge and the replacement span (2011–2012) over

FDR Drive Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly known as the FDR Drive, is a controlled-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Park Underpas ...

. * The replacement New York–New Jersey Rail

Greenville Yard Greenville Yard is a freight rail yard in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey, adjacent and north of Port Jersey. Originally developed in 1904 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it was ...

transfer bridge (2013) in the wake of

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

. * Steel jacket foundations for Block Island Wind Farm (2015). * Salvage of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge and ''

MV Dali MV ''Dali'' is a Neopanamax container ship built by Hyundai Heavy Industries. On 26 March 2024, she caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after losing power and colliding with one of its supports. Contracted in 201 ...

'' from the

Port of Baltimore The Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is a Port, shipping port along the tidal basins of the three branches of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, on the upper northwest shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is the nation's la ...

(2024, as a team with Donjon's ''Chesapeake 1000'').

References

External links

*
Pictures of ''Weeks 533'' in dry dock
* * * * * * {{cite web , url=https://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2009/05/gallery_flight_1549?currentPage=3 , author=Shechmeister, Matthew , title=The Unlikely Events of a Water Landing: New Photos From Flight 1549 , date=13 May 2009 , publisher=Wired , access-date=9 July 2015 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130102023332/http://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2009/05/gallery_flight_1549?currentPage=3 , archive-date=2 January 2013 , url-status=dead Crane vessels Individual cranes (machines) Port of New York and New Jersey