ALE, in collaboration with its subsidiary Conbit, has loaded out and discharged 54 of the contracted 106 transition pieces for Ørsted’s Hornsea Project One, located in the North Sea.
On behalf of GeoSea, ALE began the heavy lifting and transportation scope in March, loading out the 337-tonne transition pieces, from the fabrication yard onto the Sarah S barge, as HLPFI reported here.
Conbit is providing the specialist offshore engineering for the project, and has performed the structural integrity assessments and seafastening calculations of the grillages on the barge deck.
Once on the Sarah S barge, the transition pieces are transported along the River Tees to the discharge berth.
Conbit designed monopile cradles which were designed to minimise the need for welding works and therefore reduced costs. It also provided the structural engineering to enhance the stability of the SPMT operations during loading.
Bart Steerneman, engineering manager for Conbit, said: “Using our in-house expertise, we could provide a cost-effective and safer solution for ALE to perform the heavy transport operations.”
ALE’s role in the project is expected to last until early 2019.
