Where in the world are the Port of Wilmington's new cranes?

They're here - Click here for news
Update: Cranes in service on schedule

The Zhen Hua 16, carrying four new 100-foot gauge container cranes for the Port of Wilmington, arrived at the Port of Kingston, Jamaica, at 6:50 a.m. Monday, Jan. 22. After offloading two cranes at the port there, the ship sailed for North Carolina at 12:20 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28. arriving in North Carolina waters on Jan. 31. Since arriving at the sea buoy off the coast near Southport at 7:20 p.m., the captain's next task was preparing for the last leg of the trip, 26 miles up the Cape Fear River. After clearance by the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection, the crew set to work to remove sea fastenings so that the crane booms can be lowered to clear the Progress Energy cable across the river.

After a delay from the original projected transit date of Feb. 2, the transit was rescheduled for Feb. 3. As of noon Feb. 2, engineeers from Zhenhua Port Machinery Company were on board the ship making final preparations for the trip upriver to the Port.  Click here for information on the cranes' arrival in Wilmington.

The linchpins of the Port of Wilmington's $143 million container-terminal expansion, the cranes are traveling on the 788-foot Zhen Hua 16, a specialized ship designed to carry the cranes almost completely erected. The ship also carried two cranes for the Port of Kingston, Jamaica, where it stopped first to unload them before continuing on the last leg of the journey to North Carolina.

The ship left the ZPMC facility in Shanghai, China, Dec. 2. Because of the size of the cranes, neither the Panama Canal nor the Suez Canal were wide enough to accommodate the ship, so the route took it across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, then north and west across the Atlantic Ocean.

This map shows the progress of the cranes as reported by ZPMC.

NOTE: Cape Fear River closed for crane transit.

For a better look at this magnificent machinery, click on the photos above and below for a high-resolution version. (To appreciate the immensity of the cranes, compare them to the size of the crew members on the tugboat.) Click on map areas to see a Google Maps satellite hybrid map of that area.
Printable version 

Maps courtesy of the University of Alabama Cartographic Research Laboratory / Clickable satellite hybrid maps from Google Maps

Click the thumbnail schematic drawing for details about the cranes, including measurements:

• 100 feet between the legs
• 165-foot outreach (the boom that goes over the ship to lift containers off)
• 235 feet tall with the boom down in the working position and 345 feet with the boom up in its stowed position 

Click the thumbnail conceptual drawing to see how the Port of Wilmington's container yard expansion will look including the four new cranes, shown at the right. Notice the width of the 100-foot gauge rails and the distance between the legs of the new cranes, compared to the existing four cranes on 50-foot gauge rail.