ALE Helps Apollo Prep for Moray East Piling Ops

ALE has provided a full pre-piling template installation package to DEME Group’s jack-up vessel Apollo ahead of piling operations at the Moray East offshore wind farm in the UK.

ALE carried out barge load-out, transportation and installation of the pre-piling template and provided 20 axle lines of SPMT and cylinders for the work.

The project began in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with an SPMT load-out, after which the pre-piling template was set on supports and the SPMTs were removed from the barge. When the barge arrived at Invergordon, Scotland, the pre-piling template was transferred to Apollo for offshore installation.

Once the barge was positioned beneath the vessel, ALE said it began SPMT transportation to rotate the pre-piling template and maneuver it into position.

With the template in position, ALE’s Conbit operation connected the pre-piling template to the jack-up using three winch wires installed through a sheave block in the template. After all the wires had been connected, the template could be lifted from the SPMTs. The stability frame was disconnected and Conbit closed the clamps, ALE explains.

As reported earlier, Apollo recently completed the installation of 156 out of 309 pin piles at Moray East, marking the halfway milestone.

The 950MW offshore wind farm will comprise 100 MHI Vestas 9.5MW turbines scheduled to be fully operational in 2022.