ALE was called in to draw up a transport plan that would see the enormous Brave Tern jack-up barge delivered to a load-out quay one kilometre from the fabricator’s yard.

Designed as a platform for the offshore installation of wind turbines, the vessel was moved from its temporary supports at the yard in Jebel Ali Freezone onto 418 axle lines of Scheuerle SPMTs for transport.

Once at the load-out quay the vessel, still on the SPMTs, was rolled onto a semi submersible barge in before being floated for deployment offshore.

ALE general manager Cameron Waugh said: “It is always a great sense of achievement to perform a first for the company, but to achieve a world first on one of our projects proves how ALE, through careful planning and a skilled workforce truly are pushing the boundaries in the heavylift industry.”