Todd Pacific Completes Unique Project

Todd Pacific Shipyard of Seattle recently completed construction, assembly and delivery on time of a 70 mW floating power plant for the Central American country of Nicaragua. The hull was launched in January 1999 as Margarita II, followed by power plant assembly and integration on the vessel afloat at Todd's facility. The initial part of the job had Todd constructing the barge hull and deckhouse. Once afloat, Todd worked with MAN B&W Diesel from Germany, Siemens and various subcontractors to assemble the complete diesel power plant. A highlight of the project was the transfer of four 350-ton MAN B&W Diesel engines from a heavy-lift cargo carrier onto Margarita II, followed by translation of the engines to their final positions. This heavy-lift operation was trivial, however, when compared to the lift of the entire, completed power barge for "dry transit" to Nicaragua by heavy-lift vessel M/V Swan, owned by Dockwise N.V.