ALE has transported the partially completed polar research vessel, RRS Sir David Attenborough, from the fabrication hall to the slipway at Cammell Laird Shiprepairs & Shipbuilders' Birkenhead shipyard in the UK.
Weighing 5,000 tonnes, the vessel was moved 41 m by the UK-based heavy lift and transport specialist using 216 axle lines of SPMTs and 26 transport beams.
Commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and built by Cammell Laird to a Rolls-Royce design, the RRS Sir David Attenborough will be one of the world's most advanced polar research vessels when it is completed in 2019 and enters service with the British Antarctic Survey.
ALE previously completed the load-out and load-in of the stern section of the polar research vessel in August 2017, as HLPFI reported here.
Commenting on the complexity of the project, Scott Fenwick, project engineer for ALE explained that the movement required the design of bespoke transport frames and the utilisation of transport beams to avoid welding to the vessel - which is costly and time consuming.
