28 April 2016, 13:53
ALE’s latest range of widening trailers in South Africa have performed their first job in Durban, Kwazulu-Natal.
ALE’s South Africa branch are contracted with the loading, transporting and staging of eight tug boats, weighing in at 800t each, from the client’s warehouse to the floating dock onsite at Durban Harbour.
ALE has executed the opening phase of the project, by loading the third tug boat individually onto the new widening trailers by jacking it up, using four 500t climbing jacks. The tug boat was then transported approximately 500m from the shipyard’s warehouse to the floating dock using 36 axle lines of the new widening trailers in a 2 x 2 file 18 configuration at 3m wide, along with two trucks.
Once the tug boat was transported from the warehouse to the floating dock at the Durban Harbour, it was then staged by using the trailers’ hydraulics to jack it down onto concrete stools situated on the deck of the floating dock. The new widening trailers, which arrived in November 2015, are widened at a standard of 3m. However, ALE has widened the trailers to 4.3m in width, allowing maximum stability for the project requirements.
Zayno Myburgh, ALE’s Project Manager, explains why these widening trailers are highly qualified within their capacity for ALE’s specific project requirements: “The trailers were ideally suited for this project due to their high capacity of 45t per axle line, their extremely strong spine beams which reduce the need for temporary central support as well as being ideally suited to ALE South Africa’s road and bridge clearances.
“The trailers are currently lined up to work on several transportation contracts already and will continue to assist with the execution of the seven remaining tug boats. The project is expected to conclude in September 2017 with the loading, transportation and staging of one tug boat for every three months. We believe these new trailers offer a smarter, safer and stronger solution to our clients.”