Cruise Ship Tenting

JK Rentals, Inc.

The project was to successfully enclose an area on the second deck from the top of a cruise ship so that renovation could take place underneath the enclosures without having weather affect the construction. This was all to be done in a very efficient manner so as to not delay the other projects that were taking place that used cranes that were making lifts to the top of the cruise ship.

The overall purpose of this project was to cover an area on the ship so that a new flooring system could be installed on the deck below the tent. Rain would cause the flooring system to fail and the process would need to be restarted. Being that the ship was dry-docked, the highest deck of the ship was at an approximate height of 140 feet above the ground. There was only one crane in the area that could successfully reach all the necessary points of the top deck that would allow us to install the tent properly. Therefore, each lift with the crane would cost a significant amount of money and it could not be occupied for very long or it would delay the process; the ship being out of water for additional days would cost millions of dollars. A total of five installers from our company assembled and installed the tents, and two were asked to be on the ship at all times for adjustments until the tents were no longer needed.

There were several unique aspects to this job that were very custom as well as fairly original ideas and methods. Timeliness of this installation was an ever-changing period, but once we were given the green light the clear span tents that had been preassembled on shore would have to be flown/lifted in one complete piece (minus all vinyl) to the top deck of the ship and properly secured. If it was even moderately windy, the lifts were delayed until conditions were safe to do so. As you can see in the pictures, no legs or uprights were used in the installation of the tent; instead, custom fixtures were built for this project. Once resting on the ship, there was, of course, no way to stake the tent down so parts of the ship frame itself were utilized for securing the structure to the top deck. Vinyl roof panels had to be pulled in by hand and was done with less than two feet of pulling room in some cases. No uprights could be used for the tent due to not being able to have anything touch the floor so sidewall was custom-mounted from a suspension cable to help enclose a work area. Clearances for setting this tent on the top deck were less than six inches at a minimum of three points for each tent which meant a lot of coordination on all sides of the tent as it was lowered onto and lifted off of the deck.

The project was an overall success. In the end, the client saved tens of thousands of dollars with the methods we were able to utilize to install and remove the tenting, and the project deadline for the refurbishing under our tents was met with two full days to spare. To our knowledge, these are two of the largest clear span tents to be lifted and flown as complete units to this date.

Project details

Location: Norfolk, Va.
Fabrics: Precontraint 702 by Serge Ferrari North America Inc. from Anchor Industries
Design, Fabrication, Project Manager and Installation: Kurt Goeman, Chad Mecus, JK Rentals, Inc.