March 7 - ALE has completed a year-long transportation and installation project in Oman, which involved delivering 268 heavy lift cargoes to Orpic's Sohar Refinery Improvement Project (SRIP) in the Sohar Industrial Area.
As well as delivering the units - which ranged in weight from 96 to 920 tonnes - ALE was responsible for installing 184 heavy and oversize pieces at the refinery.
The transport and installation contract involved the use of 64 axle lines of self-propelled modular transporters (SPMT) and 48 axle lines of conventional trailers to move the cargoes from Sohar port to the site. A number of large cranes, ranging in capacity from 60 to 1,600 tonnes, were also used at the jobsite.
"Right from the start, this project was challenging as we had to deliver and install the components within a tight delivery schedule," said ALE project manager Shafic Tilllawi.
"It was also logistically complex, performing the crane moves on a congested site and careful coordination with the local tenants and authority, the Royal Oman Police, was required in order to shut down the electricity in the overhead cables and cross a water intake culvert with a low ground bearing pressure."
Meanwhile in the UK, ALE has also completed work on the aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, at Rosyth Royal Dockyard. In 2013, ALE completed work on the first aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth.
The carriers were fabricated in blocks at six locations throughout the UK and ALE's work included the weighing, jacking and skidding, site movement, load-out and load-in at the integration yard in Rosyth.
During this project, ALE has performed 26 load-in operations of sections, ranging in weight from 230 to 11,500 tonnes, using a variety of SPMT configurations. The company utilised 448 axle lines in the movement of the lower block, as well as skidding the 26,500-tonne forward section.
ALE will now perform weighing operations for the two aircraft carriers at the Rosyth Yard.
Elsewhere in the UK, ALE is preparing for its Mega Jack 800's first project in the country, which will involve jacking up a 954-tonne jacket to a height of 14 m in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
Having lifted and transported different sections of the jacket and topside to the site, ALE will upend the jacket using its AK912 crane, before jacking it up and loading out the jacket and topside.
