In 2006, the construction companies Ballast Nedam & Vestas used a Hydro hammer S-1200 with a customised 5.1 m diameter sleeve for the installation of 36 monopiles at the Near Shore Windpark in Egmond aan Zee.  The spuds, which had an outer diameter of 4.6 m, had to be rammed for about 30 metres. What was so special: the spuds were not rammed from a floating crane as usual, but from the floating platform HLV “Svanen” of Ballast Nedam.

Always reliable and available

The construction companies’ choice was for our S-1200 Hydro hammer because of its reliability. Moreover, IHC Hydrohammer possesses more than one of these hammers. In the event that the Hydro hammer should fail during this two and half months’ project, IHC Hydrohammer would be able to quickly replace the broken Hydro hammer.  Furthermore, we had a service unit 24/7 available in case of any calamities. In the end, the whole project was completed by using one of our S-1200 Hydro hammers without any problem. The choice for this relatively heavy hammer was well-considered. Due to its enormous power, the load was in comparison relatively small, which made the probability of a drop-out quite small. It also meant that they had some spare power should they have needed it.

HLV “Svanen”

The “Svanen” was originally built to place bridge components. It is a catamaran of which the two floats are only connected with each other at the back.  Despite the exceptional u-shape of the vessel and the fixed crane that is able to carry a load of approximately 9,000 tons and lower it from the right-hand side, the launch vessel  is very suitable for ramming. A particular risk was that the hammer could only be fixed once in the crane jib and could not be taken out afterwards, as the crane cannot move sideways for unloading. However, due to the operational reliability of this Hydro hammer, it was only removed two and half months later. At that time, 36 monopiles had already been rammed.

Both for the construction duo Ballast Nedam & Vestas and IHC Hydrohammer, this project was very successful; something the market did not expect to be possible! The success was realised due to a combination of reliability, innovation, delivery and operational reliability, and extra power. Typically IHC Hydrohammer!