A local developer and part of the Allie Family Companies says what’s happening these days in the Manitowoc port is “a bit of poetic justice.”
Alex Allie refers to this city as being once the home of 28 World War II built submarines and a longtime builder of cranes. Now, a partnership exists involving Kone Cranes, the city, state, and Broadwind Energy.
Allie says, “It really started with Broadwind, which was working with Kone Cranes. And someone with that company said they were looking for a place to start assembling and testing these cranes they were building. That’s when somebody suggested we’re on deepwater right here..why don’t you come to Manitowoc and it’s when we got involved, the city got involved and we brought ‘em to Manitowoc.”
Allie explains the first crane is expected to be shipped by barge this spring to a naval shipyard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
“It’s going to be used for refitting the Los Angeles class nuclear submarine so it’s picking out the nuclear reactors, putting parts on board, anything related to those submarines.”
Alex confirmed that work is underway on assembling another crane, this time for the Army Corps of Engineers along with a 2nd crane project for the Navy. Allie was a guest last week of Jason & Tina Prigge’s on WOMT Radio’s After-Further-Review and the full episode can be found here: stevensonpodcast.com/AfterFurtherReview/
