TDI-Brooks last week was awarded a geophysical, geotechnical and benthic sampling survey campaigns to study seabed conditions within the project lease area and potential export cable corridors off the US East Coast. The data collected will help determine safe and responsible project design and engineering along with identifying potential geohazards and benthic habitats. This is the sixth offshore wind project awarded to TDI-Brooks in the past 2+ years.
TDI-Brooks expects to begin the program in April and will continue through summer 2023 with two to three vessels in operations. From the start of early Spring 2021, TDI-Brooks continues to drive forward in an emerging market performing marine site investigations for several of the offshore wind operators on the US East Coast.
The geotechnical component along cable routes and within lease blocks consist of deploying a variety of tools including their Feritech FT550 electric and TDI-Brooks designed pneumatic vibrocorer (pVC) systems along with their Datem Neptune 5,000 (N5K) and 3,000 (N3K) cone penetrometer test rigs (CPT). Upon completion of the geotechnical vibracoring, all samples are sent to the TDI-Brooks’ ISO-certified geotechnical and environmental laboratories in College Station, Texas for testing. The geophysical projects consisted of sidescan sonar, TVG magnetometer, multibeam, USBL, parametric subbottom profiler and 2D ultra high-resolution (UHR) with single and multi-channel seismic systems to provide detailed seabed and shallow sub-surface data. The data generate supports the inter-array cables, route planning for project design via pre-lay route surveys and survey works during cable lay, including as-built surveys for cable detection (depth of burial). Geophysical and hydrographic surveys ascertain seabed bathymetry, morphology, classification, marine habitats and sub-seabed layers.
With each offshore wind project carried out, the operator contracts representation from the local fishery organization to accompany the survey. This representative is onboard during the duration of the survey to ensure communication and coordination takes place with the local fishermen. The fishery representation ensures the survey vessel remains clear from all fishing gear and fishing areas. In addition to a fishery presentative, a Protected Species Observer (PSO) is deployed to support industry and academic marine activities by conducting monitoring onboard the vessel to minimize any potential impacts on species encountered.
The TDI-Brooks fleet is operated within a robust Safety Management System and all vessels are regularly vetted by client marine assurance groups and a part of the OCIMF Offshore Vessel Inspection Database (OVID). TDI-Brooks successfully installed the Starlink Maritime platform on (2) two of their research vessels RV Brooks McCall and RV Miss Emma McCall with a third system purchased ready to install on the RV Proteus.