Australia’s AG&P ALE Ventures deployed the Hydro Deck to deliver the first modules to the Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG project.
Over the course of the project, the Hydro Deck will offload more than 200 large, pre-fabricated modules from sea to ground, overcoming Darwin’s twice-a-day, up to 8m tidal variations.
Measuring 140m by 40m by 12m, the Hydro Deck uses a water ballast and air tank system to provide buoyancy control, which allows it to compensate for both rapid tidal variations and load balancing as modules move across its deck. As a result, the Hydro Deck facilitates 24/7 roll-on, roll-off operations for combined loads up to 22,000-tonne.
“We see enormous potential for the Hydro Deck, on a global scale, to enable projects of all sizes that have been logistically uncommercial or impossible up to this point,” says Augusto Gan, AG&P managing director. “The Hydro Deck will be the gateway that will unlock projects experiencing the most challenging tidal conditions in either remote or overcrowded locations.”
The Hydro Deck is reducing the environmental footprint that would have been caused if the project had built a permanent structure for a temporary requirement. The Hydro Deck will be towed away upon scope completion.
“Tidal variations and other difficult conditions can often cause large-scale projects to fall behind in schedule, resulting in major costs to the contractor and project owner. The Hydro Deck provides a critical solution that will make these concerns a thing of the past,” says Paul Kelly, ALE managing director, Australian region.
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