4 of the largest cranes on the West Coast arrive in Seattle

The cranes are part of the Terminal 5 modernization project. The cranes are almost twice the size of Seattle’s Great Wheel.

Four new Super Post Panamax cranes arrived in Seattle’s Elliott Bay on Sunday.

The cranes that will be erected at Terminal 5 will be needed to support an increase in the number of larger cargo ships calling into the port of Seattle. The cranes were shipped from Shanghai to the Pacific Northwest.

The giant cranes are 316 feet tall and have a 240 foot jib boom. Each crane can lift 100 tons of cargo.

For comparison, the Great Wheel on the Seattle Waterfront is 174 feet high. The cranes are among the largest on the west coast and can handle the largest container ships in the world.

The ports of Seattle and Tacoma approved, as part of the Northwest Seaport Alliance, in 2019 a nearly half-billion dollar plan to renovate Terminal 5 of West Seattle as the leading international container terminal. ”

The ports are spending $ 340 million on Phase 1 of the refurbishment of Terminal 5 for the world’s largest container ships, which should be completed later this year.

The ports face fierce competition for shipping routes, particularly from Vancouver and Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The latter is a remote outpost that has been heavily backed by the provincial government and has just passed the 1 million container mark, with 1.8 million standard containers planned by 2022.

The investment is believed to be necessary to keep the ports competitive with Vancouver, BC, and Prince Rupert.