Harland & Wolff, the largest shipyard owned by Navantia UK, has completed the installation of 11 cranes from Co. Down supplier Walter Watson Ltd, in readiness for final assembly of three Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships at Belfast for the UK’s Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
The cranes at the Queen's Island yard, costing a total of £1.5 million, form part of a £98.5 million modernization and recapitalization of the facility under its owner since early last year, to prepare it for advanced shipbuilding and naval projects also from overseas.
The final crane commissioned at the shipyard, a gantry crane with a 20-metre span known as a “semi-Goliath,” was installed at the end of August. This largest crane is capable of lifting 20 tonnes, that’s the equivalent of two double-decker buses, and it will be used to move steel and other components throughout the shipbuilding site.
So what is a semi-Goliath crane? Well, it is one with a leg running along a ground rail—a halfway version of the iconic two-landmark yellow Samson & Goliath cranes at H&W, which are to be reactivated requiring renovation, as Afloat previously reported.
Navantia UK has also acquired six electric overhead traveling (EOT) cranes and four jib cranes to be used in and around the yard’s fabrication hall. This facility itself has also been enlarged following a 5,000 square-metre extension.
More MarineLog reports on the infrastructure investment.
