Assembly of the first of the Royal Navy’s giant Queen Elizabeth class of aircraft carriers has started at the Rosyth shipyard in Scotland.
Workers at Babcock International’s yard have started to piece together prefabricated units of the ship’s sponson blocks.
Each of the 13 units is around 10m long, 7.5m wide and 3m high, and weighs between 20-36 tonnes. The completed ship will weigh 65,000 tonnes and will be 283m long and 51m high.
Individual units are built into 300-tonne blocks, then electrical wiring, mechanical systems, ventilation and any propulsion, weapon or aviation systems are fitted.
The ship, including blocks being made at yards at Portsmouth, Appledore in Devon and Barrow in Cumbria, will be assembled at Rosyth for 2014.
The dry dock at Rosyth has had to be substantially modified to accommodate the work. Widening the dock and its entrance, and the construction of metal skids to transport blocks into the dock was completed last week.
The units at Rosyth are the first of 20 being sent from Appledore.
Sean Donaldson, Babcock International’s project director, said: “This marks a milestone. Many people have been involved in preparing the components for transportation and the coordination of the logistics to ship the components.”
As block-build progresses two 500-tonne transporters and the Goliath crane will be used.
© PE Publishing, 9 September 2009
