Patrick Beckwith, foreman, watched his crew begin to dismantle the crane at the Fore River Shipyard. A pair of peregrines had used the crane as a nesting site, and two chicks hatched in May. When the pair returns to breed next year, the crane will be gone and they'll have to find a new nesting site.
(Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)
Quincy's Goliath will rise again, in Romania
Patrick Beckwith, foreman, watched his crew begin to dismantle the crane at the Fore River Shipyard. A pair of peregrines had used the crane as a nesting site, and two chicks hatched in May. When the pair returns to breed next year, the crane will be gone and they'll have to find a new nesting site.
(Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)
By
Emily Sweeney
Globe Staff
/
August 14, 2008
- |
The Goliath crane in the Fore River Shipyard, for decades a towering fixture on the Quincy landscape, soon will be on its way to Romania, where it will regain its original glory and be put back to work.
The crane, which once stood over 25 stories tall, is in the process of being lowered to the ground.
"Things are going well. We've removed the bottom part of the crane," said Gregory E. Nordholm of Norsar LLC, a Washington-based company that was hired to dismantle and move the mammoth piece of machinery.
By end of the week, the massive structure will have dipped below the treeline, said Nordholm. It will be broken down into nine pieces, and loaded onto a barge. Its final destination is Mangalia, Romania.
Two peregrine falcons used to have a nest on top of the crane. Earlier this year, environmental officials removed their nest and set up two nesting sites nearby. But the birds stayed put. The falcons continued to live on the crane throughout the spring, according to Gregg Demers, a partner with Environmental Resources Management, a consulting firm hired by Daewoo.
The birds had four eggs this year, and two of the eggs hatched in May, according to Demers. The young birds and their parents have since left the nesting site, he said.
"They won't breed again until next year," said Demers. When that time comes, the crane will be gone; they'll have to find a new place to nest.
The Quincy shipyard, which employed 32,000 people at its peak, closed in 1986. The Goliath hasn't been used since. But it will soon be put back into use by Daewoo-Mangalia Heavy Industries, a Romanian shipbuilding and repair company that purchased the crane for an disclosed sum.
Daewoo-Mangalia Heavy Industries plans to reassemble the crane and operate it at its large shipyard on the Black Sea, according to John R. Bashaw, an attorney with Day Pitney LLP, the law firm that handled the transaction. Bashaw is a partner in Day Pitney's environmental and land use regulation practice, and works out of the firm's Boston office.
Business is booming at Daewoo's shipyard in Romania, according to Bashaw.
"They don't have enough cranes to do the work. They apparently are very much overbooked," he said.
A crew of 20 people are working on the crane. As of last Friday, the crane had been lowered 46 feet.
"They're gradually lowering it down," said Bashaw.
The barge that will carry the crane across the Atlantic is due to arrive in Quincy next week.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
