Industry first

Ampelmann has created, in co-operation with Seaway Heavy Lifting, an innovation allowing workers safe and efficient access to install the jackets for 84 wind turbines on the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited project in the Outer Moray Firth.

Seaway Heavy Lifting awarded the EPCI contract to Ampelmann to design and create an Angular Boom Tip. This will allow secure connection at difficult angles for safe gangway transfer between the 5000 tonne heavy lift vessel (HLV) Oleg Strashnov and the 2500 tonne HLV Stanislav Yudin to install 84 individual wind turbines.

Conventional gangway tips are rounded which can fit on the majority of offshore wind turbines or offshore assets. However, due to the size of the HLV, its close proximity to the jackets and the location of its access gates, Ampelmann custom-made the V-shaped tip at the end of the 25-metre gangway to give workers easy access to build and manage each new wind structure.

Friso Talsma, Ampelmann’s Manager Sales and Business Development for Offshore Wind said: “It’s a new innovation, tailor-made for this particular project and overcomes a significant safety and potentially costly challenge faced by the operators to ensure safe access to the structures. It’s an industry first and no other competitor has such a solution.”