IT will become one of the tallest structures on Southampton’s skyline.

A huge 126-metre crane will be moved into place at the city’s port this morning – towering above anything in the city.

The 1,300 tonne structure towers in at the equivalent of almost two Queen Mary 2 cruise liners, 13 double-decker buses, and is two-and-a-half times the size of Frobisher House.

It also towers over Millbrook Towers, pictured above – currently Southampton’s tallest building – which is 73 metres tall, and is 80 metres taller than Shirley Towers.

The crane is one of four new ship-to-shore gantry cranes, together worth £26m, which will be slowly edged 150 metres into place on a newly constructed quay wall ready to begin operations at Southampton’s container terminal.

It will be delicately moved using a remote controlled trailer at around 8am.

A fifth crane will be relocated from an existing berth to complete the £150m expansion of the terminal.

The cranes will have the capability to reach across ships that are 24 containers wide.

This will allow the port to handle the largest vessels afloat and the next generation of ultra large container vessels.

The new cranes have been manufactured at Liebherr’s specialist factory at Killarney in the Republic of Ireland following an order by Associated British Ports (ABP) in November 2012.

The organisation focused on Ireland to save CO2 due to the short shipping distance compared to cranes originating in China.

Nick Ridehalgh , Southampton port director, said: “These impressive cranes are a demonstration sign of our confidence in the future of the port of Southampton and its container operation.

“They will allow us to continue to handle the biggest ships afloat now and long into the future and will keep the container port, which is already the most efficient in Europe, at the forefront of the industry.”