Hareket’s heaviest load

Turkish heavy lifting and transportation service provider Hareket Heavy Lifting & Project Transportation moved two 6,200 tonne passenger ships a distance of 250 metres to a floating dock at the Tersan Shipyard, Yalova, Turkey. It is claimed to be the heaviest load the company has ever moved.

To move the ships Hareket used a total of 200 heavy-duty axle lines with 1,600 wheels. The equipment included 56 Goldhofer PST/SL-E heavy-duty modules with hydrostatic drive and electronic multiway steering, plus 36 Goldhofer conventional THP/SL heavy-duty modules. It took Hareket four days to relocate the two ships in the floating dock with a space of just 1.5 metres between them.

The operation also included moving the ships sideways by more than two meters over the short distance of the route for correct alignment with the floating dock. While the self-propelled modules with their electronic steering system could be steered using a single remote, a separate Hareket operator was needed to keep the steering of the conventional heavy-duty modules in sync. 

The two vessels, Havila Capella and Havila Castor, have been ordered for the Norwegian Havila Kystruten fleet and will go into service on the coastal route between Bergen and Kirkenes. About 124 m long, 22 m wide and 35 m high, the ships are state of the art in terms of eco-friendly design and engineering. They are powered by LNG and batteries but are also designed for retrofitting with hydrogen fuel cells.