The UK Royal Navy has awarded a contract to ALE to provide heavy transport and lifting services in support of the construction of the navy’s Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.

Under the five-year €11m ($15.5m) contract, ALE will load out blocks weighing up to 11,000t on to barges for sea transport.

The work also includes ballasting and mooring of the barges during load out, pumping out more than 13,000t of water as the load shifts onto the barge.

The two aircraft carriers – HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales – will be assembled at Rosyth dockyard in Scotland, while the components in the form of blocks built at other UK shipyards, will be transported for assembly to the yard in Fife.

Heavy lifting work will be carried out by ALE’s expanded crane fleet with the addition of a 1,600t-capacity, 24,002tm, Terex CC 8800-1 lattice crawler crane.