G&G International has once again undertaken a spectacular feat: technicians of the Belgian company have tilted a 165-tonne steel construction 45 degrees to be able to transport it from their workshop to the Port of Antwerp. From there, the Belgian construction has been transported to Liverpool, England where it will play a crucial role in a major offshore project carried out by GeoSea NV, a subsidiary of the DEME dredging group.
For the first time, G&G International is collaborating on a large-scale offshore project in English waters, where some dozens wind turbines will be planted in the seabed to provide the Earth with a bit more green energy. G&G's steel construction will serve as a ram to drive the foundations of the wind turbines into the seabed.
Always a solution
More than two months of work have gone into the workshops of G&G in Willebroek. The steel-driving frame is 7 metres high and forms a 24 x 24-metre square, representing about 165 tonnes of pure steel.
"Normally this steel construction could never fit between the ‘iron railway bridge' of Willebroek," says Lieven Van Hileghem, Project Manager at G&G International. "But we wouldn't be G&G if we didn't have a solution for every problem! That's why we tilted the construction at a 45 degree angle so that it can get to Antwerp without any problems."
From Antwerp it will go onto a pontoon and then to the Port of Liverpool, where the driving frame will be secured under an adapted GeoSea NV offshore work platform to ensure that the British wind turbines will soon be firmly driven into the seabed.
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