New crane arrives at Rosyth
Babcock’s Goliath crane arrives at Rosyth
The Goliath crane ordered by Babcock has arrived at the UK’s Rosyth dockyard from manufacturer Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery.
The crane will be used for final assembly of the QE class aircraft carriers, and arrived onboard a heavy lift ship 244m long with 39m beam. The crane was shipped partially-erected, with the girder and upper sections of the legs assembled, along with all components and erection equipment including temporary erection towers.
The crane will be erected to its full height on the ship deck over a six week period, before being transferred from ship to shore directly onto the crane rails. The rails were completed in February 2010, involving a total of 380 piles through varying ground conditions into the underlying bedrock, followed by reinforced concrete foundation beams, and the rail track. The crane is expected to be fully commissioned by 1 September 2011.
The Goliath crane will be the largest in the UK, at a height of 68m to the underside of the main beams, with a span of 120m. Its 1,000 tonne lifting capacity is provided by three hooks. Two of the hooks are suspended from an upper trolley (each hook having a 300 tonne capacity) and one from a central, lower, trolley with a 500 tonne capacity. While the three hooks have a greater cumulative lifting capacity than 1,000 tonnes, the total capacity is defined by the crane structure.
Rosyth’s newly widened direct entrance allows access to what is claimed to be the largest non-tidal basin for ship repair in the UK, separated from the Firth of Forth by a sliding gate, with 42m width.
Commenting on the latest progress, Babcock project director Sean Donaldson said: “The arrival of the Goliath crane via the newly widened direct entrance is a significant visible milestone in the aircraft carrier programme, and an exciting step forward. The civil works, crane, electrical package and general shipyard upgrade forms a £80m programme designed to make the Babcock Rosyth facility capable of assembling the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. All projects within the programme are performing to budget and schedule, to high safety standards, and when complete the facility will be unique in the UK.”
Aircraft carrier alliance programme director Geoff Searle said: “This is yet another important milestone for the aircraft carrier alliance. The Goliath crane will be the largest structure of its type in Europe and will dominate the skyline in Fife. The crane is a vital element in the programme to build both the QE Class aircraft carriers because the ships are being constructed in such huge sections, so we needed something capable of lifting up to 1,000 tonnes. It will be great to see the crane in action as blocks of the ship start to arrive in Rosyth in the months to come and HMS Queen Elizabeth starts to take shape.”
Images for this article - click to enlarge
Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright © Mercator Media 2012. This does not exclude the owner's assertion of copyright over the material.
