Vintage cargo cranes at Yokosuka's
Piedmont Pier are being taken apart
By Steve Liewer, Yokosuka
bureau chief
Steve Liewer / Stars and Stripes
A giant seagoing crane lifts a section of a cargo crane from Yokosuka Naval Base's
Piedmont Pier onto a waiting barge. The cargo crane, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy
in the 1930s, weighs 350 tons and is one of two being dismantled as part of a renovation
of the pier. |
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — A Japanese contractor has been slowly taking apart
two vintage cargo cranes that have stood at Yokosuka’s Piedmont Pier since the days
of the Japanese Imperial Navy.
The two cranes, weighing 350 tons and 80 tons, respectively, are being taken apart in
sections by an even larger seagoing crane. The sections are then being loaded onto barges
to be removed.
The cranes will be replaced by two new ones, weighing 150 tons and 80 tons,
respectively. The replacement is part of an ongoing project to extend the Piedmont Pier
— also known as Pier 12 — by 470 feet to accommodate modern aircraft carriers.
The USS Kitty Hawk, currently assigned to Yokosuka, is forced to use two berths at another
pier.
Jon Nylander, a base historian and spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Japan, said the
cargo cranes were built in the 1930s to accommodate the growing Imperial Navy fleet. He
said the larger crane was designed specifically to lift turrets on and off of Japanese
battleships of the era.
"They could just lift [the turret] up, slide the battleship under it, and put the
turret back on," Nylander said.
Nylander said the two cranes are obsolete and have not been used since failing
inspection a few years ago. So the Navy decided to replace them rather than renovate them
during its refurbishment of the Piedmont Pier.
The pier extension has been planned since 1991 and was begun in 1999, but the project
was sidetracked because of toxic heavy metals found in the wet soil underneath the pier.
The entire pier has now been enclosed in concrete, and Navy officials expect to resume
the extension next year.
Nylander said in 1980, the USS Midway — then assigned to Yokosuka — suffered
damage when it struck the crane.
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