VESSEL REVIEW | CRBC Bridge Pile 1 – Large pile driving vessel for bridge construction and offshore installation
China Railway Construction Corporation recently took delivery of a new pile driving ship built by local company Dajin Heavy Industry.
CRBC Bridge Pile 1 (铁建大桥桩1; Tiejian Daqiao Zhuang 1) is the world’s largest pile driving ship as well as the first pile driving vessel in China to be fitted with a dynamic positioning system, according to Chinese media.
The newbuild has an LOA of 130 metres (430 feet), a beam of 40.8 metres (134 feet), a depth of 8.4 metres (28 feet), and a pile frame height of 156 metres (512 feet). She can operate in water depths of as much as 70 metres (230 feet) and install piles each weighing up to 700 tons and measuring 120 by seven metres (390 by 23 feet).
Can be deployed even in coastal and inland waters
CRBC Bridge Pile 1 can operate in unlimited navigation areas and is suitable for piling operations in international offshore, coastal, sheltered sea areas, and inland waterways to support activities such as steel bridge construction and offshore wind turbine installation.
The propulsion system includes diesel engines that are fitted with selective catalytic reduction systems to ensure compliance with IMO Tier III NOx emission standards.
To ensure safe operation under a range of sea and weather conditions, the vessel relies on its DP and anchor positioning systems, which can monitor wind and wave flow and hull attitude in real time and automatically adjust the thrusters to stabilise the vessel.
Operating systems ensuring greater flexibility
The opening and closing hydraulic cylinder has a bore diameter of 1.6 metres (5.2 feet) and a rated thrust of 5,000 tons. The main cylinder closed hydraulic system boasts an energy recovery rate of 40 per cent. This system can intelligently switch between energy consumption and regeneration modes according to the actual load of piling operations, thus significantly reducing energy consumption.
CRBC Bridge Pile 1’s initial deployment will be in Brazil where she will assist in the construction of the Salvador-Itaparica Bridge in the northeastern state of Bahia. Upon completion, the bridge will connect the island of Itaparica with the mainland and will be one of the longest structures of its kind in Latin America.
