Crane Incident Delays Delivery of Seaway Alfa Lift

The Seaway Alfa Lift foundation installation vessel is not expected to be operational on offshore wind projects during 2022, according to Stuart Fitzgerald, Chief Executive Officer of Seaway 7.

As reported, Seaway Alfa Lift suffered an incident with the A-frame on the 3,000t Liebherr crane in October 2021.

The A-frame has since been removed from the vessel, inspected, and is now under repair at the China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) shipyard in Jiangsu, China, where the vessel is under construction. Crane repairs are expected to be completed during the second half of 2022, Fitzgerald said.

”As a result of key supplier delays, the final installation, testing and commissioning of the mission equipment for the upending and lowering of monopiles is expected to represent the critical path to vessel delivery and readiness for operations,” Fitzgerald said.

”We do not expect the vessel will be operational on projects during 2022.”

Seaway Alfa Lift, which departed for sea trials in early January 2022, was initially scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2021 or in early 2022, in time to start her first assignment – the installation of monopile foundations at the Dogger Bank A wind farm offshore the UK in the second half of 2022.

”A contingency scenario is activated which utilises Seaway Strashnov to progress the committed work on the Dogger Bank A project in the second half of 2022,” Fitzgerald said.

Alfa Lift will also install the monopile foundations on the Dogger Bank B and Dogger Bank C phases of what is the world’s largest offshore wind farm under construction.

Follow offshoreWIND.biz on: