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The first ship that will transfer rajón stone from Cuba for the Mayan Train project, in Mexico, has just started loading the volumes of aggregate in the port of Cienfuegos.
César Rosell León, director of the Downtown Port Services Company, exclusively told the Cuban News Agency that the ship will take 25 thousand tons(t), of which more than half has already been handled to the warehouses of the vessel, docked in port area number two of Obourke.
He explained that they hope to complete this first shipment in just a few days, while another ship is anchored in the waters of the Cienfuegos cove, waiting to take another 18,000 tons of material, destined for the base of the Mexican train tracks.
Rosell León, with several decades of work in maritime activity, assured that these operations are new for port facilities, something to which they are subjected for the first time, even though it is a technology used in other ports in the world.
He added that the dock operators have extensive experience in loading and unloading bulk, such as corn or soybeans, but they are much more “noble” tasks.
On the contrary, the manipulation of the stone, some of up to a meter in size, is a strong and rustic task, where several types of transport are involved in a combined way.
The process begins with the railway system that transports the product from the quarry to the open-air warehouses in the port area.
Then loaders from the construction and automotive transport sector intervene to bring the merchandise closer to the dock and finally, other loaders deposit it in the cages that are raised by means of a crane to the belly of the ship.
The manager pointed out that the attachments used – some cages or buckets – have four points to ensure the hoisting, and have a capacity of nine cubic meters, that is, almost 12 t.
At first it was a bit cumbersome, but the brigades have already gained skills and now they maintain a very good rate of 4,500 tons per day, he assured.
As is customary, in the port of Cienfuegos they work in a three-shift regime and having the necessary insurance, and the abundant material deposited in the yard, they hope to soon reach dispatch on these and the other vessels to be handled.
The rajon stone, destined for Mexico, comes from the Arriete quarry, in the municipality of Palmira, with excellent quality resources.
This time the construction material will serve as “cushioning” or support for the tracks of the Mayan Train project, with some 1,500 kilometers in length, and will link several states of that nation in support of the sustainable development of their towns.
