Customer

Alevro - (Monadelphous and Fagioli Joint Venture)

Location

Karratha, Western Australia

Challenge

Alevro, a joint venture between Monadelphous and Italian heavy lift specialist Fagioli, faced the complex task of installing three massive LNG compressors at the Pluto LNG facility near Karratha, Western Australia. The key challenges included:

• Managing the exceptional size and weight of each compressor (approximately 63m × 30m × 30m, weighing 3600 tonnes)
• Developing a precise transportation method from quayside to prepared foundations Creating a controlled lowering system for the massive modules
• Ensuring perfect alignment during the jack-down process
• Accommodating structural constraints that required custom equipment designs

Solution

Alevro transported the compressors using 168 axle lines of SPMTs from quayside to the prepared foundation site. They deployed 44 Enerpac climbing jacks in a strategic array, with each stack topped by 500mm climbing jack frames holding Enerpac 250T jacks. Two Enerpac EVO power packs controlled the synchronized jack-down system, each operating 24 jacks on 12 hydraulic lines while requiring only 7.5 kilowatts of power. The team developed custom jacking frames to avoid structural clashes with the modules.

"The load transfer from SPMTs to climbing jacks used the Enerpac EVO 'tilting mode' to align the module with its behaviour onto the SPMTs hydraulic bed. The entire jack-down operation, using the Enerpac climbing jacks and EVO systems, went very smoothly," said Massimiliano Vettrici, Operations Manager at Alevro.

The successful implementation earned recognition from the Crane Industry Council of Australia (CICA), winning both the "Best Innovation" award and the People's Choice for innovation.

Products

• Enerpac EVO Synchronous Lifting System
• Enerpac 250T hydraulic jacks (44 units)
• Enerpac EVO power packs (2 units) ·
• Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs) - 168 axle lines
• SPMT powerpacks (8 units)
• Custom-designed jacking frames