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Monster cranes arrive at Mobile docks, after two-month voyage
Lawrence Specker
June 24, 2017
Two massive new container cranes arrived in Mobile on Saturday afternoon, completing a two-month voyage from China.
When installed, they'll increase capacity at the APM Terminals facility enough to allow the current growth trend to continue for years.
As The Alabama State Port Authority prepared to welcome two colossal new cranes on Saturday, some of the ones already in place, such as these at the steel shipping terminal on Pinto Island, across the Mobile River from downtown Mobile, went about their work.
Austal Inc. has announced that it has received a half-billion-dollar contract to build its 14
th Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) for the U.S. Navy.
The move helps guarantee that Austal's shipyard in Mobile will stay busy for at least the next four years. In December, the company delivered LCS 10, the Gabrielle Giffords, to the Navy. In May LCS 12, the future USS Omaha, completed acceptance trials.
That is the last major step before a ship is delivered.
In the last five years, enrollment in the program has been increasing, and
a new plane manufacturing project planned for the region is expected to bring even more prominence to this program.
The presentation dazzled with possibilities, an endless array of what-ifs and proposals that would reshape and revitalize downtown Huntsville without the restraints of real-life headaches such as money and growing pains.
In that way, the unveiling of a wide-ranging proposal to the city council and the public last week for a downtown master plan was the fun part.
Imagine, for instance, a stream of bike paths throughout downtown. Or the parking garage at Von Braun Center reconfigured to be fronted by restaurants and retail outlets. Or new developments that would help frame Big Spring Park.