PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles has purchased a refurbished four-decades-old log stacker to replace one beginning to show its age.
Port of Port Angeles commissioners Tuesday approved purchasing a 41-year-old stacker for $352,188, replacing a 32-year-old stacker at half the budgeted amount to facilitate log yard operations.
Commissioners Connie Beauvais and Steven Burke approved the acquisition at their meeting Tuesday following a presentation by port Public Works Manager Chris Rasmussen.
Commissioner Colleen McAleer was absent.
Rasmussen said Wednesday the 1978 Wagner L907811 the port will be buying was rebuilt in 2014 and has 3,600 hours on it, relatively young by log-stacker standards.
“We have a few Wagners that have 50,000 hours on them,” he said.
“We take good care of our equipment.”
The 1986 stacker that will be replaced has an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 hours, Rasmussen said.
The 19-foot-tall clawed vehicles that stack timber might be the most important pieces in a log yard’s arsenal.
The facility on Marine Drive just west of the port’s Boat Haven marina generated $2.2 million in revenues for the tax district in 2018, according to a preliminary estimate. That compares to $1.9 million in 2017.
About 60.5 million board feet of logs are staged at the log yard annually, according to the port’s website at www.portofpa.com.
Rasmussen said in his staff report to the commissioners that the stacker that will be replaced is starting to experience steel fatigue and that a major breakdown could cause it to be out of service for an extended time.
“The structural integrity of the frame, that’s the most important thing,” he said Wednesday.
“If the frame is stressed, then the machine could go bad.”
That’s already starting to happen, port Executive Director Karen Goschen said Wednesday.
“Our mechanics are spending too much time on it,” she said.
The newly purchased vehicle, obtained from J & B Logstackers in Centralia, has spent most of its four decades hauling pipe on an asphalt lot, Rasmussen said.
The smooth surface puts less wear and tear on the vehicles than on the uneven ground typical in log yards, Goschen said.
The port currently has three Wagner log stackers.
The vehicle that will be replaced will serve as a back-up if one of the other three goes down.
“The Wagners are the most critical piece of equipment we own,” Rasmussen said.
Log stackers are used by the port for log-ship cargo and log-truck operations, typically toting 27-28 tons but capable of lifting 45 tons, Rasmussen said.
Log trucks carry between 27-29 tons of logs, he added.
The stacker, 18 feet, 10 inches tall, weighs 139,000 pounds.
Because of its overall size, it will be delivered in at least three pieces, its steel tires, body and head — those giant pincers that hoist jumbles of logs — assembled on site, Rasmussen said
Logs from North Olympic forests are shipped to Puget Sound mills and elsewhere on the West Coast and to the Pacific Rim, the port says on its website.
Logs originating in Alaska and Canada reach American markets by travelling through port’s Tier 3 before being plucked by the port’s stable of stackers.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
