Belgium based maritime contractor DEME’s DP 3 installation vessel’s 5,000-tonne crane collapsed at Liebherr construction yard in Rostock, Germany
DEME was planning to handle the heaviest monopiles, jackets, and wind turbine components in a single shipment with this giant crane, with an impressive 145 meters main crane boom, in the coming weeks.
Just a month ago, crane boom stands at its full height for the first time, and the stakeholders were expected to be working on overload tests and sea trials in the following weeks.
Construction on the Orion began in March 2018. The vessel was successfully launched at the COSCO Qidong shipyard in China, in November 2018.
In April 2018, Liebherr started working on the giant new crane. The high-tech crane was assembled on the 800-tonne pedestal on board as planned. With a lifting capacity of 5,000 tones at more than 35 meters outreach. The crane could lift nine fully loaded A380 airplanes in one go as claimed by the company.
With this crane, loads were expected to be lifted to an unrivaled height of 180 m, as the company expressed earlier.
Once ready, Orion was expected to join the DEME fleet in 2020 and head straight to the Moray East offshore wind farm project in the UK for the installation of 103 jackets.
As we reported in November 2019, Orion enters in its final construction phase for the installation of 5,000-tonne crane at Liebherr construction yard in Rostock, Germany.
The extent of the damage to the crane and the vessel will be investigated in the upcoming days and weeks, according to DEME.
The vessel ‘Orion’ is under construction and owned by Cosco (Qidong) Offshore Co.
DEME NV was expecting to take the deliver from COSCO in the second half of May.
Incident occurred at around 15.30 PM local time on Saturday.
Five people were injured in the incident, with two requiring hospital treatment, according to local police.
Press– release
