Mammoet

It’s all about time

Mammoet’s history began in 1807 when its founder foresaw the growing demand for transportation in an increasingly industrialising society.

Today, Mammoet helps clients improve construction efficiency and optimise the uptime of their plants and installations by providing solutions for lifting, transporting, installing and decommissioning large and heavy structures. Mammoet’s services focus on the petrochemical and mining industries, civil engineering, power generation and offshore projects.

Logistical challenges imposed by heavy industries are growing daily, with factors such as remote locations, harsh climates and a strong emphasis on the environment driving the business towards smarter and safer solutions. Accordingly, Mammoet’s services comprise of heavy lifting services, heavy transport services, plant turnaround/shutdown management, site-wide construction services, modular construction, factory-to-foundation logistics, emergency response and wreck removal, decommissioning of onshore and offshore installations, trading in new and used equipment worldwide.

Mammoet possesses unparalleled expertise at moving large and heavy objects. It draws upon that expertise to design, plan and deliver smart solutions for its customers that move their deadlines forward, improve the uptime of their plants and installations and reduce the cost of ownership. The company recognises that, ultimately, for its customers it’s all about time. Or, as Mammoet puts it: ‘Time isn’t set in concrete, or forged in steel. But it’s the biggest thing we can move for our customers.’

At the forefront
Over the years, Mammoet has executed numerous construction lifts, yard moves, load-outs and factory-to foundation projects in a wide range of circumstances. By drawing on the knowledge of its experienced team and utilising its large pool of specialised equipment the business is able to come up with new approaches for safely and quickly loading transportation jackets and platforms to offshore destinations. New construction approaches are made possible by its established push-up system and gantry lifting services.

The company is continually at the forefront of industry innovation. Recently it has won the European Association of Abnormal Road Transport and Mobile Cranes (ESTA) Innovation Award for its special skidding system that is in use at Chernobyl in the construction of the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure being built over the reactor.

During the construction of the NSC, Mammoet will lift the structure in stages and in the future will skid it across the reactor. The completed structure will be approximately 110 metres high and 165 metres long with a span of 260 metres and a weight exceeding 35,000 tonnes. As part of the project, Mammoet also developed and built a dedicated, fully remote-controlled skidding system to position the arch sections. The system has 116 skid shoes with a capacity of 703 tonnes each. The angle at which the two skid tracks on each side are installed optimises the transfer of the huge load to the foundations. The skidding system is synchronised to avoid stressing the structure of the NSC and the skid shoes are customised to lift, shift and move the load.

Petrochemical construction projects
Mammoet has a longstanding relationship with the petrochemical industry. Armed with a large fleet of specialised equipment, top engineering expertise and years of operational experience the business helps to optimise plant construction schedules. Its portfolio of work includes a variety of refineries and chemical plants in locations around the globe.

Preferred standard in shutdown projects
Mammoet also has high-level insights and longstanding hands-on experience in executing petrochemical maintenance and shutdown projects. The company’s engineers and project managers are involved in projects from the earliest stages of shutdown activities. Early co-operation between all subcontractors enables co-ordinated, efficient, and safe execution of maintenance activities, which improves turnaround times whilst maintaining the highest standards of safety performance. Their detailed approach has a positive and significant effect on total downtime in shutdown projects and the associated costs thereof. For some Mammoet customers, this approach has become the preferred standard for shutdown management.

Mammoet Versatile Ballast System
In May 2014 Mammoet introduced its Versatile Ballast System at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston. The installation of offshore platforms by float-over method is time consuming and costly. The Versatile Ballast System simplifies and combines ballasting for load-out and float-over operations in one system. This eliminates the need to convert the ballast system after the load-out, speeding up the platform production date considerably. The system needs less equipment, manpower and time to be installed – apart from the fact that a large part of the installation can be executed on the quayside, meaning that the time needed for barge rental is shortened significantly. Also, decommissioning the system takes up much less time. Sophisticated, yet simple, the fully modularised system is easily installed and fits any barge without the need for modifications. The system was designed with efficiency and safety in mind. The modular and fully containerised design contains all standard elements, simplifies transportation and increases safety of the operation.

Achieving excellence
Of course, Mammoet’s position as the world’s leader in engineered heavy lifting and transport is held not just through innovative design, but also in its approach to customer service, ensuring that the best service is provided. Recognised for its efforts in this area the business was invited to attend the annual Costain Awards Ceremony, winning the ‘Achieving Excellence’ Award for Supply Chain Partner Of The Year 2013. Nomination for the award was on the back of the continued excellence during the execution of the Evap D Project at the Sellafield Nuclear site, where Mammoet’s tailor-made four-way gantry system ensured a safe approach and additionally saved two months of construction time.

Mammoet has also gained experience building wind farms all across the globe in diverse circumstances, where its specialised equipment reduces civil works requirements and helps extend weather windows. In operations that began in April 2014, Mammoet has been using its Liebherr LR13000, the biggest crawler crane in the world, to install four platform legs on Van Oord’s newest wind turbine installation vessel, the Aeolus. Erection of the giant crane took 12 days, its mammoth structure reflecting the strength required to lift the first of four 87-metre long steel platform legs, each weighing 920 tonnes. Mammoet designed, fabricated and delivered tailor-made top lifting tools and a tailing frame to ensure that the legs, that have no lifting points, can be lifted securely. In addition to the platform legs, Mammoet will also install four spudcans using a specially engineered method that involves placing partly rigged spudcans on the seabed, moving the Aeolus over it and connecting the spudcan with the leg using a combination of cranes and divers. The whole project was completed within two weeks, ready for the vessel to be operational in July 2014.

Mammoet
Services: Engineered heavy lifting and transport services