Heavy transportation and lifting contractor ALE has informed that it carried out the weighing, transportation and load-out of the J-tube cage and transition piece (TP) for the Rentel offshore substation (OSS) foundation at the Navacel dock in Bilbao, Spain.
The monopile foundation for the OSS at Belgium’s 309MW offshore wind farm was installed at the end of September.
In Spain, ALE used calibrated load cells to weigh both components and – according to the company – the 24m tall J-tube cage weighs 225t while the TP is 717t heavy and measuring 30m in height.
For the transportation of the J-tube cage ALE used 20 SPMT axle lines, while 40 axle lines of SPMT were used for the TP. The company stated that the challenge was the upright transportation of both pieces due to their narrow base and high centre of gravity, however, the manoeuvrability of the SPMTs enabled avoiding the numerous interferences in the dock during the transportation of the components. ALE said it carried out the load-out of each piece in six hours.
At the offshore wind farm site in Belgium, GeoSea’s vessel Innovation first installed the substation’s 1,050t monopile, followed by the J-tube cage and the transition piece.The topside is scheduled to be installed at the start of 2018.
STX is the EPCI contractor for the offshore substation and is in charge of the design, fabrication, transport, offshore installation and commissioning of the monopile foundation and topside, including high voltage and ancillary equipment.
Offshore WIND Staff