ALE Wraps Up Wikinger OWF Work

ALE, strategic heavy-lift services provider, has performed the final load-out for the Wikinger offshore wind farm project in Ferrol, Spain.

ALE was contracted to undertake a variety of services for the Wikinger project across two project sites, Cadiz and Ferrol in Spain.

The scope in Ferrol was divided into three main parts: weighing 12 jackets, transporting 29 jackets within Navantia Fene Shipyard and loading-out the jackets.

ALE started the project in December 2015 and performed the final load-out in December 2016. Each jacket weighting between 625t – 650t, and was loaded-out using SPMTs and a CC8800 crawler crane.

The operation is part of the Wikinger project which also includes the transportation and load-out of a jacket and topside in Puerto Real, Cádiz, the company said.

Hussam Kasis, ALE project engineer, said: “In order to comply with the client’s schedule, we adopted a new technique to attach and detach the jacket to the crane and, as a result, we were able to reduce each load-out by three hours to complete it within just nine hours.

“As one of the biggest projects ALE has undertaken throughout Europe in 2016, it was a very interesting project to work on and be a part of.”

These jackets will be a part of Wikinger offshore wind farm, located in the Baltic Sea off the German coast.