International heavy transportation and lifting contractor ALE has lifted the partly completed polar research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough from fabrication hall to slipway so construction of the bow can be completed.
The ship, weighing 5,000t, was moved from fabrication hall 41m to the slipway at Cammell Laird’s shipyard in Birkenhead.
“We’re extremely proud to be so involved in such a landmark project, completing the engineering and execution of heavy transportation and load-out scopes of work,” said Scott Fenwick, project engineer for ALE.
“We have found the best solution possible at each stage; designing bespoke transport frames and utilising transport beams to avoid welding to the vessel – which is costly and time consuming.”
He said that in order to transport such a large and heavy piece, ALE utilised 216 axle lines of SPMT and 26 transport beams.
ALE previously loaded-out and loaded-in the AFT section of the ship in August 2017.
Advanced research
The RRS Sir David Attenborough has been commissioned by NERC, designed by Rolls-Royce and is being built by Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Ltd. It is a major UK Government investment in frontier science.
When completed, the vessel, which will be operated by British Antarctic Survey, will be one of the most advanced polar research vessels in the world.
From 2019 onwards, scientists researching oceans, ice and atmosphere will have access to state-of-the-art facilities on this floating multidisciplinary research platform.
By Anne-Marie Causer
