Associated Terminals Christens Two New Cranes On New Orleans Riverfront
For visitors to New Orleans’ Woldenberg Park, located on the left descending bank of the Mississippi River just across the floodwall from the city’s famed French Quarter, container and cargo ships, cruise ships, towboats and passenger vessels like the steamer Natchez are a familiar sight. The New Orleans harbor, after all, is one of the busiest and most diverse harbors in the country.
On January 22, though, passersby beheld a first: a pair of barge-mounted Liebherr CBG 500 E cranes docked with their 83.7-cubic-yard buckets resting atop the levee. That afternoon, Convent, La.-based Associated Terminals, a provider of stevedoring, terminal operations and marine logistics services on the Lower Mississippi River, held a christening ceremony for the two crane barges, the D. Lopez and Bill S., named after longtime team members Dawn Lopez and Bill Sullivan.
The cranes are the first from Liebherr for Associated Terminals and the first diesel-electric cranes in the company’s fleet. Gary Poirrier, chairman of Associated Terminals and its sister company, Turn Services, called it a significant step for the company.
“We are pleased to gather here for an important milestone as we christen new Liebherr cranes that reflect our continued investment in our people, our operations and the waterways that support global commerce,” Poirrier said. “Today’s christening is especially meaningful as we name these cranes in honor of two individuals—Bill Sullivan and Dawn Lopez—who truly reflect the values of this company.”
The company’s values, Poirrier said, are summed up in its motto: the ability and attitude to accomplish anything.
“That mindset guides how we approach our work, how we plan for the future and how we support our customers every day,” he said. “Standing here today, we are reminded that this river is the gateway to the greatest economy in the world, linking local work to global impact.”
Todd Fuller, president of Associated Terminals and Turn Services, introduced both Lopez and Sullivan. While Lopez’s fingerprints are on much of both companies’ internal and external communications and events, Fuller said her dedication to the well-being of the team and to promoting the maritime industry to students and the community is unmatched.
“Dawn has never met a stranger, whether she’s at an industry event, in Washington, D.C., at the state level or working with local governments and community organizations,” Fuller said. “Dawn is not only a tremendous asset to our organization. She is also an asset to our industry and the communities we serve.”
Lopez serves as vice president of marketing and public relations for both Associated Terminals and Turn Services. A native of south Louisiana who has been with Associated Terminals and Turn Services for more than 13 years, Lopez highlighted her family’s history in the region’s rich maritime industry, from commercial fishing and agriculture to an ancestor who was a pirate.
“My great great grandfather, Lazaro Lopez, built his livelihood along the Gulf Coast, working in the seafood industry and operating a molasses mill tied directly to river commerce,” Lopez said. “My great grandfather, Clarence Aycock, operated a dredge boat company. And yes, I even have a pirate in my ancestry, ‘Tucker the Terrible.’ For my family, the water was never abstract. It was work. It was survival. And it was pride.”
Lopez shared a story from her first week with the company, when its base of operations was in a historic warehouse space in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood.
“One day, David Fennelly [founder of Associated Terminals] walked into my office and handed me a binder filled with articles and photographs about the building,” Lopez said. “I opened it and flipped a few pages, and there it was—the biography of Lazaro Lopez, my great great grandfather. I knew the face. His portrait hangs in my parents’ home.”
The building that was the headquarters of Turn Services for more than a decade was none other than the molasses mill that her great great grandfather had run. Lopez said the sense of connection and belonging was immediate.
“It felt familiar,” she said. “It felt right. This was not a job. This was my home.”
Sullivan, who serves as vice president of sales and marketing for Associated Terminals, has been with the company since June 2001. A native of Lexington, Ky., who spent time in Rochester, N.Y., and was raised in Lincoln, Neb., Sullivan enlisted in the U.S. Navy as an aviation ordnance man in 1991. In 1995, he received orders to join VFA-204, also known as the “River Ratters,” at Naval Air Station Belle Chasse, in Plaquemines Parish, La. Sullivan transitioned to civilian life in 1999, and soon thereafter, he met Fuller, Fennelly and Dan Barker.
While Sullivan joined the company in 2001, it was his service in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that set him apart as a member of the Associated Terminals team, Fuller said.
“Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Bill took on the challenge of serving as commercial manager for the MGMT, our floating grain rig, even while he himself had been displaced from his home in New Orleans,” Fuller said. “That decision speaks volumes about his commitment to this company and to this team.”
Addressing the crowd gathered for the christening, Sullivan reflected on the first time he met Fuller.
“Todd carried two phones,” Sullivan said. “I didn’t even own one, and when I asked him what was going on, he told me he worked for a stevedoring company. Immediately, he then had to explain to me what stevedoring actually meant.”
In 2000, when he met Fuller and the others at The Chimes in Baton Rouge, La., a customer came along who was from the upstate New York area.
“A lot of my family is from there, so I spent most of that evening talking with him,” Sullivan said. “Todd later told me that he noticed that night I had ‘the gift of gab,’ and that observation played a role in my later opportunity to apply for the logistics coordinator position.”
Also that year, Sullivan had the chance to attend the christening of one of the company’s floating harbor cranes.
“Even then, it was clear this company was special,” Sullivan said. “At that time, it had a young, energetic ownership team—David Fennelly and Gary Poirrier—who truly cared about both the people and the equipment. Today, I am proud to be part of a team of truly exceptional people. I am inspired every day by their knowledge, professionalism, dedication and by the camaraderie that defines this company.
“This is a 24/7 industry,” Sullivan added, “and it takes 24/7 people and 24/7 equipment to perform at the highest levels. It has been an honor to market Associated Terminals’ services and to represent the amazing men and women who make up this organization.”
During the christening ceremony, company leaders acknowledged many of the people who helped bring the D. Lopez and Bill S. to fruition. From Associated Terminals, Zeljko Franks, the company’s chief operating officer, recognized Lonnie Becnel, Larry Arnold, Kerry Robertson, Jason Perez, Ethan Palma and Curtis Blank, Associated Terminals’ director of maintenance and engineering. Fuller thanked representatives from Liebherr; LAD Services, the shipyard that built the barges; Louisiana CAT, which provided the rolling equipment, remote operations platform and power systems below deck; and Boh Bros., which assembled the cranes and mounted them on the barges.
The Rev. Philip Vandercook, executive director of Global Maritime Ministries, a New Orleans-based maritime chaplaincy organization, offered an invocation and prayer of blessing for the cranes. Capt. Greg Callaghan, commander of Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, presented American flags to the crews of the D. Lopez, and Bill S. Blank presented crews with the company’s flag. Andreas Mueller, managing director of sales at Liebherr Maritime Cranes, also spoke during the event.
To conclude the ceremony, Lopez broke a bottle of champagne over the bucket of her crane barge, while Sullivan’s wife, Annmarie Lloyd, did the same for his namesake crane barge. Afterward, a jazz band led attendees in a New Orleans second line to a reception at The MISI in the nearby Jax Brewery.
More About The Crane Barges
The D. Lopez and Bill S. are mounted on Associated Terminals’ next generation crane barges, built by LAD Services. The barges measure 250 feet by 72 feet. Power comes from four Caterpillar C18 generators from Louisiana CAT, a Caterpillar C4.4 generator and a CAT XES120 battery system that offers up to 11 hours of standby time. The setup delivers up to 1,435 kw. of peak power. The barges feature a keel cooling system rather than radiators, further enhancing the cranes’ environmental performance and long-term reliability.
The two Liebherr CBG 500 E cranes are engineered for high-volume bulk handling, offering boom lengths up to 50 meters and a maximum grab capacity of up to 90 tons. That volume makes the D. Lopez and Bill S. the largest cranes by lifting capacity on the Lower Mississippi River. The cranes’ maximum bucket capacity of 83.7 cubic yards means they have a throughput capacity of up to 2,460 tons per house. Integrated LiCAtronic energy recovery systems enhance efficiency by capturing braking and lowering energy, while remote diagnostics and ergonomically designed operator cabins support safe, reliable and continuous operations.
Besides the prototype built by Liebherr in Germany, the D. Lopez and Bill S. are numbers 2 and 3 of the Liebherr CBG 500 E crane line.
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Featured photo: The paddlewheeler City of New Orleans passes Associated Terminals’ barge-mounted cranes D. Lopez and Bill S., moored at Woldenberg Park January 22 ahead of their christening ceremony. (Photos by Tracie Morris Schaefer)
