Barnhart assisted a nuclear plant in the removal and replacement of its Spent Fuel Handling Bridge (SFHB). The project required special rigging, designed per nuclear code ANSI N14.6, but the plant did not have a suitable system to perform the lifts. Barnhart was tasked with designing, fabricating and load testing custom rigging devices to facilitate the removal and replacement of the SFHB.
Due to minimal clearance between the top of the SFHB and the auxiliary building crane hook, any device Barnhart designed would need to be both high-capacity and low-headroom. Each SFHB required a custom rigging device, one for the existing SFHB and one for the new SFHB. Each rigging device was tested to 300 percent of its design capacity per ANSI code requirements.
The existing SFHB rigging device was designed and fabricated by Barnhart as a center-pick dual-beam spreader bar that enabled the SFHB to be lifted near the vertical supports, limiting the bending forces applied to the structural members. The spreader bar pinned directly into the overhead crane’s sister hook to minimize the headroom required for the rigging.
The new SFHB rigging device was designed and fabricated as a dual C-Bar center-pick rigging arrangement to lift the bridge at the center of its span. The C-Bar arrangement was delivered in a custom, dedicated shipping frame that enabled easy assembly prior to each use. Both rigging devices performed as designed with no issues. Barnhart designed, fabricated, tested and delivered both lifting devices in less than three months.