New Construction Success Generates Excitement for Cascade General

The July 1999 announcement that Cascade General had won the contract to build a 124 MW power barge for delivery to Guatemala in just nine months surprised many observers and focused national attention on the Portland, Oregon company. Under its management, the Portland Shipyard has carved out a reputation as a leading American provider of ship repair and conversion services. Its core business has been the Alaskan tanker trade year round, plus cruise ship overhauls.

Although no new construction had been undertaken there since the 1980s, Cascade General intended to leap back into the newbuilding business with the largest, most advanced vessel of its kind in the world. On a 279' X 104' hull, this floating power station would house seven MAN B&W 25,000 hp diesel generators, each weighing 330 tons, and capable of generating enough electricity to supply 60,000 US homes. This clearly represented a challenge as well as an opportunity for the company, and particularly for executive vice president Suren Menon, the man most responsible for the company's success in the cruise ship sector.

Menon had no doubts that he could deliver a top-class product on time. "We'd clearly proved that the Portland Shipyard could prefabricate and handle large modules, like deck extensions and thruster tunnels and double bottom additions to hulls. Menon feels that trouble-shooting conversion projects is in many ways more demanding than a properly planned new-building program. So the chance to start from a clean sheet was something the entire management team at the Portland Shipyard was anticipating.

Cascade General had the skills, the manpower, and the facility. The barge design, by Kvaerner Masa Marine of Vancouver, Canada, gave them the chance to make the maximum use of recent advances in modular building methods. "The physical layout of the yard, our extensive covered working spaces, and the technical expertise we've developed are all well suited to modular assembly," Menon stressed. "This project represented the best opportunity for us to re-enter the new construction field."

The first steel was cut on June 15, and work was soon under way on numerous modules in separate work areas. First to be completed were the machinery packages carrying all the auxiliary equipment involved in fuel storage and delivery. Everything, including pumps, filters, purifiers and pre-heaters, was pre-assembled on shore and lowered into the barge hull through deck openings. By October, the deck was closed up and ready for the installation of engine skids.

The high capacity cooling system for the power plant consisted of seven 18" cooling water inlets and pumps in the stern. Rather than manhandle and fit these below decks, the barge was launched minus its stern. The aft compartment, designated the "integrated cooling module," was constructed separately with all its machinery pre-fitted, and welded permanently into place. In November, the deckhouse, an impressive 90' long, three-stories high and weighing 295 tons, was rolled out of its building bay on a multi-wheeled trailer and moved 100 meters to the dockside. From there it was lowered into place onto the barge stern by a heavy-lift floating crane.

When five of the engines arrived in early December, the shipyard's diverse resources again proved their value. Cascade General's dock crews routinely drydock the largest ships on the west coast. The heavy-lift transport ship was moored alongside the power barge in a sheltered location between two of the yard's dry docks. Over a 48-hour period, the MAN B&W engines, encased in plywood, emerged from the depths of the ship's hold and were gently lowered onto a pair of girders spanning the length of the barge deck.

They were followed by five generators, each weighing in at 65 tons. (The last two engines were shipped separately in January.) Once the barge was returned to the dockside, riggers skidded these huge power plants into position using old-fashioned grease on the skids. The machinist teams moved in to attach the motor mounts and make final adjustments. Finally, the engines were set in final position. The 13.8Kv Siemens generators were then positioned by a dockside crane, aligned by laser, and connected to the engine's output shaft.

From the start, wiring and plumbing teams had been pre-outfitting as much of the final seven miles of piping and thirty-five miles of wiring as possible. Banks of wire runs were in place on and below the main deck well before the engines arrived, and all cooling and fuel systems were established and ready for connection. The next step in this carefully-choreographed performance was the placement of the seven engine-service modules.

These 40-ton units consolidate all oil, fuel and coolant, pumping and filtering systems into a machinery tower 30' high and 25' wide. They were built on a production line, mounted on rollers, and moved out of the workshop, across the yard and within reach of the dockside cranes. With all seven units in place, the far side of the engine hall became a solid wall of machinery. This concept markedly reduces the usual engine room clutter and improves access to the engines themselves.

With all the separate elements in place on the main deck, the 50' high engine hall was lifted and lowered into position over the generators in three sections. These were united and work then began overhead to install a moving gantry system, cooling fans for the generators, and the exhaust pipes. These oversized stainless tubes are connected to the exhaust stacks, which rise an impressive 131' (40 m) above the waterline, supported by a steel framework. Testing of the individual generators began on schedule in February.

"We are fortunate enough to have a 230 Kv powerline and a sub-station serving the shipyard. This permits us to connect each engine to the power grid and run it at full capacity," Menon noted. "We were able to test each engine, correct any voltage fluctuations, and verify the entire system," he added. This ability to perform acceptance testing on-site saved the Esperanza's operators at least a month of trials in Guatemala. Mechanical completion was achieved on April 10, 2000, a total contract period of less than 11 months. The Esperanza was floated onboard a Dock Wise submersible ship on April 15 and arrived in Guatemala two weeks later.

To provide the best possible service in this tropical environment, the barge is protected throughout by a 15-year paint system. The control room is air conditioned and engine operations are fully computerized. Every engine parameter, including temperatures and pressures at numerous locations, is monitored via touch screens in the air-conditioned control room. The emissions will be regularly analyzed by instruments in the exhaust stacks to ensure compliance with environmental standards set by the World Bank. The Esperanza's owner is Puerto Quetzal Power Limited, a joint venture between Enron, one of the world's leading power providers and Centrans Energy Services, a consortium of Guatemalan and foreign investors.

Terri Deskins, director of sales and business development for Cascade General, sees great potential for the yard to leverage its success with the power barge into a wide range of modular construction--from floating industrial plants to ships in the 300-400' range. She points out that Portland is where modern shipbuilding really began, in 1942, when Henry Kaiser started turning out Liberty ships for the war effort the same way Henry Ford built cars. "It's a proud tradition," Deskins said, "and we intend to make new construction the rule, not the exception, once again in the new Portland Shipyard."

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Cascade General operates Portland Shipyard, the largest and most complete ship repair and industrial facility on the West Coast of the United States. We provide full-service repairs and conversions for tankers, cruise ships, bulk carriers, container ships, government vessels, tugs, barges and workboats. Cascade General's Portland facility includes a 60-acre (24.2 ha) yard, 550,000 square feet (51,096 square meters) of craft shops, more than 7,600 ft. (2,326 meters) of full-service repair berths, and two floating dry docks.