August 24 - ALE has completed the transport of the heaviest out-of-gauge components for the Atyrau refinery in Kazakhstan.
ALE was awarded the contract to move three spent catalyst hoppers - comprising five parts weighing a total of 814 tonnes - from their fabrication yard to the Atyrau refinery.
The UK headquartered heavy lift specialist provided the full engineering scope including the stability checks, lashing and jacking calculations, transport arrangements and all civil infrastructure works.
ALE jacked up the oversize units using four hydraulic 130-tonne capacity jacks, so that 24 axle lines of self-propelled modular transporters (SPMT) could be driven underneath.
The units were then transported in convoy through the city centre of Atyrau using conventional trailers and SPMTs under police escort. In order to minimise disruption, transportation was conducted only on Sundays and outside of peak hours.
"This project was extremely significant for the region," said ALE's operations manager Marek Lysko.
"This is the first time for the client that out-of-gauge units with such dimensions have been transported through the streets of Atyrau. This also required the biggest trailer configuration with the utilisation of almost 70 axle lines of various trailers and transport configurations."
