Blue Grass Army Depot workers lent Blue Grass project personnel a hand to help off-load and place shipping containers on the Static Detonation Chamber 2000 site Nov. 10.

“The depot has a specialized piece of equipment used to handle the large metal containers used to ship freight overseas and about the country, known as sea vans, as they do a lot of that work on site,” said Tom Mitchell, project field engineer, Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass. “We reached out to them to see if they could assist and they readily helped us out.”

The Blue Grass site received five sea vans loaded with equipment that will be used to assemble and support the incoming thermal oxidizer unit as well as other support material for the SDC 2000 site, such as ductwork, electrical cabinets and instrumentation, which weighed about 12 tons each, Mitchell said. Instead of lifting and moving them with a crane, which would have involved repositioning the crane multiple times on the small site, the depot’s Reach Stack Container Handler crew made light work of the job.

“Using a crane, the lifts probably would have taken us more than a day,” Mitchell said. “With the depot’s assistance, it took less than two hours. We appreciate their partnership and assistance with this activity.”

The thermal oxidizer is anticipated to arrive in December. After the major modules are set, the equipment in the sea vans will be used to complete the installation.