ALE completes aircraft carrier load-ins

International heavy lift and transport services company ALE has completed the final load-in operations for the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier project, by completing its work on the second carrier - HMS Prince of Wales - at Rosyth Royal Dockyard, UK.

The project involves the construction of the largest and most complicated warships ever to be built for the Royal Navy. The carriers were fabricated in blocks at six locations throughout the UK and ALE helped with the weighing, jacking and skidding, site movement, load-out and load-in at the integration yard in Rosyth.

During this phase, ALE performed 26 load-in operations of sections ranging from 230 to 11,500 tonnes, using several self-propelled modular transport (SPMT) configurations reaching up to 448 axle lines for the heavier lower block. ALE also skidded the forward section of the second aircraft carrier weighing 26,500 tonnes - the heaviest item to ever be skidded by ALE in the UK.

John Davis, senior sales manager at ALE, said, “One of the key factors of the project was the co-operation between ALE branches. This included our team who were responsible for the skidding of the heaviest piece, the forward section weighing 26,500 tonnes.

“We are proud to be involved in such a prestigious project and would like to thank all teams involved for their hard work to execute the work safely and on schedule. As our scope of work draws to a close, this project represents a major milestone for us and showcases our capabilities in the shipbuilding market.”

In 2013 ALE completed its scope of work for the first warship, HMS Queen Elizabeth and in October last year skidded the final sections for the second warship, HMS Prince of Wales.

Now the load-in scope for the whole project is complete, ALE will perform the final two weighings at the Rosyth Yard, the integration yard for both of the aircraft carriers.