ALE starts Oman wind job

International heavy transport and lifting specialist ALE has begun receiving operations for components to build the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) first wind farm. ALE was contracted to provide the full turnkey scope for the Dhofar Wind Project, involving receiving, transporting and installing 13 wind turbine generators which consist of almost 100 components.

Blades, tower sections, nacelles and hubs first arrived at the Port of Duqm in September. Having gained customs clearance, all components were taken to ALE’s laydown area near the port.

The overland trip is 590 km to the Dhofar site and there were two turbine components in each convoy. All were escorted by police because of the sheer size and scale of the convoy. Components are up to 65 metres long and weigh up to 100 tonnes. Specialized blade trailers were used while conventional trailers carried the tower sections, nacelles and hubs.

Shafic Tillawi, ALE country manager – Oman, commented, “The client recognised our successful track record working on similar wind projects in the world as well as our ability to work effectively with local government requirements and provide the full turnkey solution.”

The transport was ongoing in October and the lifting operations were expected to take place in December with the support of the ALE – Wind Services division for the electro-mechanical installation phase.

For the lifting work ALE proposed a time-efficient solution by using hydraulic trailers to move the main crane partially assembled across pads. The transportation and installation phase for this Dhofar Wind Project was forcast to be completed by February 2019. A total of 13 wind turbine generators will be installed.