ALE was a privately held UK company specialising in heavy transport and lifting, including transportation and installation of heavy items. It was acquired by the Dutch firm Mammoet in January 2020.
 ALE heavy road haulage units | |
| Industry | Heavy lifting and transportation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1983 |
| Founder | Roger Harries |
| Headquarters | Hixon, UK |
Number of employees | 1,800 |
| Website | http://www.ale-heavylift.com/ |
ALE, which is an acronym of Abnormal Load Engineering, was founded in 1983 in the UK. The company currently operates in numerous countries and has over 40 branches around the world. The global headquarters is based in Hixon, Staffordshire, UK. The Research and Development (R&D) division is based in Breda, the Netherlands. [1]
ALE has acquired several companies over the years including Brambles Heavy Contracting in 2002, Alstom Distribution Services Division in 2005, UK-based John Gibson Projects in 2007 [2] and the Dutch firm Conbit in 2017. [3]
The company has worked on several high-profile projects, including the Earls Court residential redevelopment, [4] the RRS Sir David Attenborough polar research ship [5] and Mordovia Arena, host for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. [6]
In 2017 ALE performed the largest single lift by a crane in the UK, involving a 1,500t portal beam on a site at Earls Court in London. [7] The same year the company performed another global first, lifting a 3,000t module in Brazil. ALE transported the salvaged South Korean ferry, MV Sewol, using a record number of self-propelled modular transporter. [8]
In July 2019, Mammoet signed an agreement to acquire ALE due to the intention of the second generation of owners not to continue with the business. [9] The acquisition was completed in January 2020. [10]
ALE makes use of a variety of equipment to perform its services. This includes transport systems, ballast systems, jacking, barges, skidding systems, auxiliary, weighing systems and cranes, as well as their own bespoke equipment. Some of the most advanced and cutting-edge equipment forms part of ALE’s Innovation Series. [11]
The Mega Jack is a jacking system consisting of several towers. The tower’s bases contain hydraulic jacks. The capacity of each tower is 5,200t and the whole system is capable of lifting 52,000t to a height of 25 metres. [12] The Mega Jack was launched in 2011. It is self-erecting and has been adapted and improved over the years to increase its lifting capacity. [13]
ALE owns two Mega Jack 800 systems. The first was launched in 2014 and the second in 2017. It consists of four 12 metre towers, including starter cassettes and bracing cassettes to connect braces for jacking higher. The capacity of each tower is 800t. [14]
The AL.SK190 crane was launched in 2008 with a lifting capacity of up to 4,300t. This was followed by the AL.SK350 in 2013, which has a lifting capacity of 5,000t and a load moment of 354,000tm. The AL.SK cranes are also available in an AL.SK700 configuration, achieving capacities of 8,000t. The cranes can be equipped with a 3,400t capacity heavy duty jib. [15] The AL.SK350 is the world’s largest capacity land based crane. [16] In 2017 ALE used it to perform the world’s heaviest commercial lift using a land based mobile crane, whilst executing an FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) integration project in Brazil. [17]
The Hydro Deck is a barge that was launched in 2014 by AG&P ALE Ventures. The system is designed to enable the load-in and load-out of heavy cargo in areas where tidal variations can cause significant delays to projects. [18] Hydro Deck was first used on the Ichtys LNG Project in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist rope, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It is mainly used for lifting heavy objects and transporting them to other places. The device uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of a human. Cranes are commonly employed in transportation for the loading and unloading of freight, in construction for the movement of materials, and in manufacturing for the assembling of heavy equipment.
The Saipem 7000 is the world's third largest semi-submersible crane vessel, after the SSCV Sleipnir and the SSCV Thialf. It is owned by the oil and gas industry contractor Saipem S.p.A.
The lighter aboard ship (LASH) system refers to the practice of loading barges (lighters) aboard a bigger vessel for transport. It was developed in response to a need to transport lighters, a type of unpowered barge, between inland waterways separated by open seas. Lighters are typically towed or pushed around harbors, canals or rivers and cannot be relocated under their own power. The carrier ships are known variously as LASH carriers, barge carriers, kangaroo ships or lighter transport ships.
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A crane vessel, crane ship, crane barge, or floating crane is a ship with a crane specialized in lifting heavy loads, typically exceeding 1,500 t for modern ships. The largest crane vessels are used for offshore construction.
Mammoet is a privately held Dutch company specializing in engineered heavy lifting and transport of large objects.
A self-propelled modular transporter or sometimes self-propelled modular trailer (SPMT) is a platform heavy hauler with a large array of wheels which is an upgraded version of a hydraulic modular trailer. SPMTs are used for transporting massive objects such as large bridge sections, oil refining equipment, cranes, motors, spacecraft and other objects that are too big or heavy for trucks. Ballast tractors can however provide traction and braking for the SPMTs on inclines and descents.
A ballast tractor is a specially weighted tractor unit of a heavy hauler combination. It is designed to utilize a drawbar to pull or push heavy or exceptionally large trailer loads which are loaded in a hydraulic modular trailer. When feasible, lowboy-style semi-trailers are used to minimize a load's center of gravity. Typical drivetrains are 6×4 and 6×6 but also available in 8×6 and 8×8. Typical ballast tractor loads include oil rig modules, bridge sections, buildings, ship sections, and industrial machinery such as generators and turbines.
Pioneering Spirit is a catamaran crane vessel owned by the Switzerland-based Allseas Group designed for the single-lift installation and removal of large oil and gas platforms and the installation of record-weight pipelines. The 382-metre-long (1,253 ft), 124-metre-wide (407 ft) vessel is the world's largest vessel by gross tonnage, and since September 2021 also the largest floating sheerleg in the world. It was built in South Korea by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in 2013 at a cost of €2.6 billion. It commenced offshore operations in August 2016.
A heavy-lift ship is a vessel designed to move very large loads that cannot be handled by normal ships. They are of two types:
A floating sheerleg is a floating water vessel with a crane built on shear legs. Unlike other types of crane vessel, it is not capable of rotating its crane independently of its hull.
Liebherr is a German-Swiss multinational equipment manufacturer based in Bulle, Switzerland, with its main production facilities and origins in Germany.
Left Coast Lifter is a floating derrick barge or sheerleg which was built to assist in the eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The barge carries a shear legs crane which is the largest barge crane ever used on the U.S. West Coast. The barge's name is taken from "Left Coast", a slang term for the West Coast of the United States.
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A hydraulic modular trailer (HMT) is a special platform trailer unit which feature swing axles, hydraulic suspension, independently steerable axles, two or more axle rows, compatible to join two or more units longitudinally and laterally and uses power pack unit (PPU) to steer and adjust height. These trailer units are used to transport oversized load, which are difficult to disassemble and are overweight. These trailers are manufactured using high tensile steel, which makes it possible to bear the weight of the load with the help of one or more ballast tractors which push and pull these units via drawbar or gooseneck this combination of tractor and trailer is also termed as heavy hauler.
The XGC88000 crawler crane is an extremely large ultraheavy crawler crane made by XCMG. With a lifting capacity of 3,600 to 4,000 tons, a total boom length of 144 meters and a total gross weight of 5,350 tons. The XGC88000 crawler crane became the largest tracked mobile crane in the world, beating out the previous record holder, the Liebherr LR 13000 when it officially came in production in 2013. However, when it comes to absolute size, movability and strength, the title still goes to the Honghai Crane which runs on rails.