ALE has utilised its fleet of skid shoes and SPMTs to assist with a ship lengthening operation in Palermo, Italy. 

ALE supported the installation of an additional 30 m ship section for the cruise ship Grimaldi Roma, which originally measured 225 m.

For this operation, ALE moved the 2,540-tonne section using skid shoes and 96 axle lines of SPMTs. While the additional middle section of the ship was transported using SPMTs, one section of the original ship structure, weighing approximately 10,500 tonnes, was skidded across tracks.

“This was a technically complex manoeuvre and we had to design a methodology to cope with the size and weight of the ship,” explained Elena Muñoz Collado, project manager for ALE. 

This is first of two cruise ships ALE has been contracted to lengthen. The same skidding methodology will be deployed for the second vessel in June 2019. 

www.ale-heavylift.com