Power plant installation on the tiny island of Lanai

Nestled atop red lava cliffs in a secluded area on the Hawaiian island of Lanai, Manele Bay Hotel Resort management and the Maui Electric Company, Ltd., endeavored to install a back-up power plant in July 2009.

At just 140 square miles in size, Lanai is the smallest inhabited island in Hawaii with about 3,200 residents. Its stores and services cater to its small population and the tourism trade. However, AFF Logistics project managers have years of successful experience in overcoming Hawaii’s unique challenges.

This complex project had a tight deadline with several schedule obstacles to work around. The large power plant pieces originated from faraway places such as Illinois, Tennessee, Missouri, Wisconsin and Mexico. Multiple smaller miscellaneous components were consolidated into several containers at AFF’s Tacoma warehouse. They were meticulously loaded in a specific order so that at destination in Lanai, the components could be unloaded in order according to a set installation schedule.

We utilized both steamship and barge service, which was dictated by West Coast arrival dates to ensure that all cargo arrived in Oahu in time to meet the once-per-week barge sailing into Lanai.

With limited barge space available due to Lanai’s regular weekly freight, bookings had to be scheduled far in advance. Special arrangements to ship the larger components earlier than needed at the job site were made. These pieces were stored in a secured yard until the day of delivery/installation.

Due to limited Lanai driver resources to handle over-dimensional loads, along with the extreme narrow and curved entrance into the job site, we contracted a Honolulu-based heavy haul carrier to deliver an oversized enclosure unit. They provided the trailer and truck for this load and we flew the driver over to deliver.

The majority of these components required crane placement and with no crane service available on Lanai, we contracted a specialty crane and rigging company from Honolulu to ship a 165 ton Demag crane with operator and riggers to perform this work. To support the crane, three loads of crane counterweight also had to be sent from Honolulu.

The project was completed on time, within budget, and without issue.

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