Take the A Train – and walk to work offshore

I’ve looked at the evolution of offshore access systems and the walk-to-work market on a number of occasions, but the market is evolving so rapidly it is worth doing so again.

Walk-to-work continues to be one of a very few bright spots in the offshore oil and gas industry, one of only a few areas in which demand is such that manufacturers see reason to continue to invest in research and development.

Having started out as fairly rudimentary gangways, walk-to-work systems are evolving quickly to meet the requirements of the offshore oil and gas and offshore wind industries. They are fast approaching the point at which using them for your daily commute will be – to quote a great tune by Billy Strayhorn made famous by Duke Ellington – like ‘taking the A Train.' (To digress a little, the website Songfacts (www.songfacts.com) explains that Strayhorn played for Ellington after a show in Pittsburgh in 1938. He mimicked the orchestra’s rendition of ‘Sophisticated Lady,’ then boldly played his own version. Ellington was so impressed it led to an invitation to Ellington’s home. Using the subway directions that Ellington gave him, Strayhorn wrote, ‘Take the A Train’).

Early, first-generation walk-to-work systems provided the ability to transfer personnel from the deck of a vessel to a fixed structure, but a new generation of walk-to-work technology has recently been introduced that enables technicians and their equipment to be transferred – even from different deck levels. There’s no need to carry heavy equipment either when you can push a trolley across a gangway. Get up in time for your shift, pick up your gear, and take an elevator to the gangway, which takes you to your place of work. It’s kind of like taking the underground or the subway to work, but at sea. That’s the kind of ease and convenience that the latest systems provide.

Manufacturers of offshore access gangways say clients are looking for systems with greater capacity – including transferring equipment – and the ability to work at a range of heights while having a minimal footprint. In both sectors ‘stepless transfer’ is the key, making it safer and easier than ever for personnel to move from a ship to their place of work.

The height at which transfers need to be undertaken can vary significantly, according to the height of the platform, turbine or substation. Large tidal variation is not uncommon in the offshore wind sector, for instance, and this has led to the development of more capable systems that incorporate elevators of the type mentioned above.

First-generation walk-to-work systems weren’t really integrated into a vessel in any way – effectively they were just bolted on deck – but the next generation of equipment is likely to be integrated into a ship’s dynamic positioning and platform management systems. The first example of this kind of integrated approach has been ordered by Olympic Shipping in Norway and will see a K-Walk motion compensated gangway installed on the vessel Olympic Orion and integrated with a Kongsberg information management system, the ship’s K-Pos DP system.

But greater integration and the ability to transfer personnel and equipment isn’t the end of the story. Ampelmann has just unveiled a walk-to-work system designed for operation in extreme conditions. The N-type Ampelmann, nicknamed Icemann, is designed to transfer crew in extreme icing and temperatures as low as -28°C. The fully enclosed and insulated system can operate in sea states up to 3.5m significant wave height.

Another new transfer system, the Safeway walk-to-work system, was demonstrated to industry last month and received excellent reviews. One of those present, Runar Vågnes, vice president sales and marketing at ship designer and builder Vard said he believed that Safeway’s ‘free-float’ mode is a key selling point. This enables the access system to ‘float’ just above the entry point onto the platform, without actually touching it.

“Knowing how much documentation is asked of a shipowner to land on some oil and gas installations, I think this is definitely a feature many offshore operators will appreciate,” he said.