August 22 - ALE will transport the 899-tonne stern section of the polar research vessel, RRS Sir David Attenborough, by barge from A&P Tyne's shipyard in Newcastle to the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, UK.
The steel block, known as block 10, measures 23 m in length and is 24 m wide, and was constructed by the A&P Group, as a contractor to Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders.
The load-out operation was scheduled to begin earlier this week in collaboration with Cammell Laird and the A&P Group. The block will be loaded onto a barge using self-propelled modular transporters (SPMT). Hydraulic ballast pumps will keep the barge level while the heavy load moves onto it from the slipway.
John Davis, senior sales manager for ALE said: "We are not only executing the heavy transportation and load-out for block 10, but have also specially designed the transport frame and sea fastenings."
On arrival at the Birkenhead yard, ALE will perform the load-in operation using the same SPMT configuration. Once securely ashore work will begin on joining block 10 to its neighbouring blocks under construction in Cammell Laird's construction hall.
The RSS Sir David Attenborough forms part of a major UK government investment in frontier science, says ALE. Commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the vessel is a Rolls-Royce design, and will be operated by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) when the ship enters service in 2019.
