KHL Group - International Cranes and Specialized Transport

ALE wins carrier contract, adds to fleet, rebrands

Written by Alex Dahm - 21 Jan 2010

ALE’s 4,300 tonne capacity AL.SK90 has been renamed AL.SK190 as part of a global re-rebranding strategy. The yet-to-be-built AL.SK120 is renamed AL.SK350. The new names reflect the measurement of the load moment based around the point of rotation, which is the industry standard convention for measuring the lifting radius of cranes, said ALE

Heavy transport and lifting company ALE based in the UK has been awarded its largest contract to date.

The five-year, multi-million pound project is to build two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy. HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales would be assembled at Rosyth dockyard in Scotland. Components, in the form of sections of the ship known as blocks, built at other UK shipyards, would be transported for assembly at the yard in Fife.

ALE's scope of work is to load out blocks weighing up to 11,000 tonnes on to barges for sea transport. It includes ballasting and mooring of the barges during load out, pumping out more than 13,000 tonnes of water as the load shifts onto the barge.

"When dealing with such delicate yet ultra heavy components, tides, moorings, ballasting and load out present particular challenges," said Mark Harries, ALE executive director. "ALE's unique and innovative solution will ensure their safe and efficient delivery to Rosyth."

For other heavy lifting work, ALE has expanded its heavy lifting crane fleet with the addition of a 1,600 tonne capacity, 24,002 tonne-metre, Terex CC 8800-1 lattice crawler crane. The Euro 11 million investment bridges a gap in the fleet between the existing MK1500 and AL.SK190 (formerly AL.SK90) cranes.