Fagioli and Barnhart win coveted SC&RA Rigging Job of the Year Awards

The Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association (SC&RA) announced the winners of the 2018 Rigging Job of the Year Awards during their Annual Conference closing night ceremonies, April 21, at the Boca Raton Resort in Boca Raton, FL. The Rigging Job of the Year competition recognized four projects that illustrate the expertise and talent needed to meet the most daunting and imposing professional challenges encountered in rigging. Each winning entry demonstrated ingenuity, diligence, and safe execution.

The awards went to Fagioli, SPA, Sant’llario D’Enza, Italy, in the over $2 million and $150,000 to $750,000 categories; and to Barnhart, Memphis, TN, in the $750,000 to $2 million and under $150,000 categories.

Over $2 million: Fagioli helps protect Venice

Between 2012 and 2014 Fagioli transported and installed a number of 12,000-ton concrete caissons which were used as bases for the mobile barriers that isolate and protect the Venetian Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea when the tide reaches above established levels.

In 2016 and 2017, Fagioli completed phase two of the project, garnering the award-winning SC&RA Rigging Job of the Year: installing the 19 corresponding 450-ton mobile gates with a Fagioli-built customized launching system.

“After undergoing months of detailed analysis, tests and 3D simulations,” said Edoardo Ascione, president and managing director, “the Fagioli engineering department designed an innovative launching system to facilitate the installation of all 19 mobile gates. The launching system had a lifting capacity of 690 tons, a loading capacity of 870 tons and contained a movable tower system capable of rotating 180 degrees.”

$750,000 to $2 million: Barnhart innovates lift system for 600,000-pound clarifier structure

Barnhart’s winning project took place at a nuclear power plant in Louisiana requiring an innovative concept and aggressive execution plan from September 2016 to January 2017.

One of the nuclear facility’s two clarifier units – the units which clean water from the Mississippi River so it can be used as cooling water to the plant – was in need of repair. The clarifier tank is a concrete structure with a wall height of 28 feet and an inside diameter of 178 feet. The “clarifier core,” which refers to the rotating equipment in the center of the clarifying tank, was supported by 16 lateral supports and tie rods that attached to the tank wall. The lateral supports had buckled, and ten out of the 16 were structurally compromised.

Barnhart’s scope was to provide a lift system capable of lifting from above the 600,000-pound clarifier structure to remove the damaged lateral supports, while also providing crane and rigging support for the subsequent reconstruction of the clarifier unit.

$150,000 to $750,000: Fagioli completes lifting, skidding, and jacking down operation of massive Top Ram Guide

From June to September 2017, Fagioli was involved in a challenging operation in Romania for the lifting, skidding and jacking down operations of a 182.4-ton Top Ram Guide (TRG)– by means of an elevator system.

Due to head-turning scope and scale, the precision job left no room for error, comprising the transfer of the TRG from a storage position to a drilling tower on top of the Scarabeo 9 offshore ship – a last-generation, ultra-deepwater semisubmersible unit equipped with a dual RamRig and a Dynamic Positioning (DP3) system, and designed to operate in water up to 12,000 feet and drill up to 50,000 feet below the rotary table.

The main project procedures included Fagioli lifting the TRG by means of an elevator system onto Fagioli Storage Towers; skidding it onto the Fagioli Elevator System; transferring the load from hydraulic jacks to the skidding rollers; and jacking down the TRG with eight hydraulic jacks.

Such a job might seem impressive, but perhaps not mind-blowing, until one considers the TRG’s dimensions: 24 meters in length, 7 meters wide, 18 meters tall and again, over 182 tons.

Under $150,000: Barnhart installs silicon reactor

Barnhart installed a silicon reactor for their client in late March of 2017 – a journey that took them through incredibly tight spaces and ultimately up a vertical shaft for securement on the second floor of a manufacturing facility. While installation options were limited, a Navisworks model was eventually provided to Barnhart with the reactor’s final location, which revealed that a path through the facility was possible – but just barely.

“The big question was, ‘what type of transport and rigging system could we use given the vertical and horizontal challenges everywhere?’” noted Brian Thomas, vice president, business development at Barnhart. Two key moves, in fact, involved righthand turns with as little as 1.8 inches of clearance. And once the reactor (46,000 pounds, 11 feet 5.5 inches in diameter and 18 feet 11 inches tall) snaked its way through the facility, it had to be tailed to vertical – with the model showing less than three inches of clearance. And the plant needed to stay in operation.

Other Rigging Job of the Year entries included:

Rigging over $2 million

ALE completed a lift and installation of FPSO modules using its giantAL.SK350 crane. ALE commenced the operations, performing the heavy lifting and installation of 31 modules onto the P-74 FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) vessel in the south of Brazil.

OXBO Mega Transport Solutions engineered and executed a load-out plan for launching a 13,000-ton, 580-foot-long by 86-foot-wide by 96-foot tall vessel using 164 lines of electronic-steered Goldhofers along with a skid carrying 7,000 tons of load.

TNT Crane & Rigging completed the crude unit heater replacement project – delivered and installed in six sections – for a refinery in Ponca City, OK. TNT provided in-plant heavy haul and crane support, which required a site survey and multiple job walks, but in the end, over 18,000 incident-free hours were logged, and the job was completed on time.

Rigging $750,000 to $2 million

Engineered Rigging replaced two high-pressure feedwater heaters in a plant without incident in 12 days, five days ahead of schedule. The challenges associated with removing the original equipment were identified in the planning phase and mitigated using metrology, 3-D modeling and 4-D animation.

Fagioli completed the erection of a 2,500-ton capacity Goliath crane in Romania using SPMTs, strand jacking and a tower lift system. The comprehensive project involved a plethora of up-to-date heavy transport and lifting equipment and deep engineering studies for disassembly and assembly operation of the different sections of the crane.

Rigging $150,000 to $750,000

Barnhart was contracted to remove and replace two feedwater heaters – the heaviest weighing 120,000 pounds. Barnhart utilized gantries, power saddle rollers and a slide system to complete the project.

Diversified Industrial Rigging was asked to provide assistance with the removal and replacement of four induction draft fans at an energy facility in Belews Creek, NC. The basic scope required a fan – 30 feet long, 13 feet in diameter and 100,000 pounds – to be lifted approximately 2 feet, and moved horizontally 24 feet, all while dodging the structural steel supporting the duct system.

Tradelossa performed the lifting and skidding of two steam turbines, an outer casting of the turbine and a steam generator. The job entailed multiple challenges, as it was performed in a reduced space and at an altitude of 49 feet above ground in extreme climate conditions.

Rigging under $150,000

Emmert International was awarded a contract to install five compressor modules at a liquid natural gas facility located in Freeport, TX. Each of the compressor modules weighed 265,000 pounds, had a length of 44 feet, a width of 13 feet and stood 22 feet high.