“From Delfzijl to Maastricht and from Enschede to Rotterdam”
“That’s where you can find us,” says Wim van Oord, Head of the Technical Department at De Klerk. Having started as a metalworker and welder in 1983 and having worked in various other disciplines, he knows the company inside and out. As Head of the Technical Department, he is now responsible for all sailing and rotating equipment. For almost 150 years, De Klerk has specialised in Constructive Hydraulic Engineering (quay walls, fendering and jetties), piling, hoisting and salvage work, dredging, coastal defences and bank protection and the maintenance of bridges and locks in the Netherlands.
De Klerk’s fleet
De Klerk’s fleet comprises 13 self-propelled work boats and a number of pontoons. Wim van Oord was trying to find cranes for two work boats, the Haringvliet and the IJmeer. His director suggested that he called Heila Cranes in Waalwijk. From the head office in Werkendam, the director had seen many multicats and other work boats equipped with yellow cranes. One telephone call was enough to discover that they were Heila cranes and that the producer of these marine and offshore cranes for the Dutch market is located in Waalwijk. Wim van Oord: “At the end of last year, we contacted Heila. And within 20 weeks, we had a 35 tm and a 90 tm crane in our possession.” Wim van Oord is very satisfied about doing business with Heila Nederland. Short communication lines, rapid response times, and both companies take a solution-oriented and proactive approach. And a great plus point was that in the time until delivery of the cranes, De Klerk could use a 80 tm Heila crane. Wim van Oord: “Well arranged! This meant that there was no downtime.”
Cranes in company colours, winches and certified
Both cranes, painted in the De Klerk company colours of blue and white, are fitted with winches to simplify the work on- and off-board. They are also certified in accordance with the prevailing regulations. The HLRM 35-5SL with a 2-ton winch has been installed on the Haringvliet. The other crane, an HLRM 90-6S with a 3-ton winch, has been installed on the IJmeer. Both work boats are already fully operational. The company employs both cranes for the construction of fendering and quays. Wim van Oord: “I hear positive comments from the people who work with the cranes. It clicked between Heila’s service engineers and our people anyway. That was clear during the installation, commissioning and the load test.
The cranes meet our expectations. I expect that we will be able to do the regular maintenance ourselves. It is good to know that Heila in Waalwijk stocks spare parts. And they translated the cranes’ manuals in Dutch. After all, we are a Dutch company,” adds Wim van Oord smiling.
