VICTORIA -- A massive piece of heavy machinery has completed construction on Vancouver Island and is now being prepared to be shipped to the Lower Mainland from the Point Hope Maritime yard in Victoria.

The more than 1,000-tonne machine, called a stacker-reclaimer, is used to lift and load steelmaking coal that is mined in B.C. and Alberta.

Construction of the lift first began in early 2019 by local industry group Ralmax. Since then, more than 100,000 hours of work have led to the completion of the 30-metre tall piece of machinery, which features a 47-metre long boom.

According to Ralmax, the heavy-duty machine is “so tall that Transport Canada requires it to have a navigation light on top.”

Once the machine is ferried over to the Lower Mainland, it will be used by B.C. company Neptune Terminals to stack and unload coal from trains before lifting it onto ships.

The colossal machine is scheduled to be lifted onto a barge at Point Hope Maritime on Monday.

The stacker-reclaimer is being lifted onto a barge by a massive crane barge known as the Dynamic Beast, which was used in Victoria to remove large sections of the former Johnson Street Bridge.

The stacker-reclaimer is expected to stay docked in Victoria until Aug. 15 before being ferried to Vancouver, depending on the weather.