After seeing the decline of manufacturing in Leith over many decades, it is excellent that Forth Ports £150m investment in their new renewables’ facility has come to fruition with the first delivery from China of the first eight XXL Monopiles for the Inchcape project.
Each of the monopiles is up to 103 metres long, 11.5m diameter and weighs 2,300 tonnes. The final project will comprise of seventy-two 15 MW wind turbines. We supplied the labour to install the unloading equipment that comprised of multiple Linkspan hinges welded to the ships deck to allow the SPMT transporters to be rolled in underneath each of the piles, the SPMT’s then jack up the pile and manoeuvre it off the vessel utilising the Linkspan hinges that bridge the gap between the vessel and the quayside. The pictures show the scale of the vessel that delivered the monopiles and the scale of the operations.
Lets hope this is the start of many more renewable type projects utilising the investment by Forth Ports.
Well done to everyone involved working day/night shift and responding to the constantly changing requirements that enabled the work to be completed successfully and safely.
The following links are to other websites covering the work.
Inch Cape’s first XXL monopiles land in Port of Leith – Forth Green Freeport
