To main content

Wind farm foundation installation, West of Duddon Sands

With 108 wind turbines producing almost 400 megawatts, West of Duddon Sands is one of the larger European wind farms. It is being built by a joint venture of Dong Energy and Scottish Power Renewables. Boskalis Offshore and Volker Stevin Offshore - in an Offshore WindForce joint venture - were responsible for the transport and installation of the 108 foundations for the wind farm.

The wind farm is located in the Irish Sea, South of Walney and West of Blackpool. The water depth is 18-24 meters with a large tide difference of just over 8 meters. After the award of the contract in the second quarter of 2012 a large team of experts worked on all the different aspects of the project. Complex technical designs were produced for tailor-made equipment and methods. Materials were sourced and complex risk assessments conducted. And, above all, all the separate locations and subcontractors were streamlined into one efficient operation, with safety as a core value. Once the work kicked off in the first quarter of 2013, about 200 people have been working on the project. Before the monopiles were installed, the Boskalis Rockpiper, the largest fallpipe vessel in the Boskalis fleet, installed 108 perfectly round scour protection filter layers on the seabed. In total 165,005 Te filter rock and an additional 11 cable crossings were installed. Offshore Windforce was responsible for the timely delivery of the monopiles and transition pieces from Aalborg in Denmark to Belfast, a journey of 1,500 kilometers. In total the chartered EIT Palmina undertook 22 voyages to deliver the 108 mp’s and tp’s. To safeguard efficient and ongoing installation by the jack-up vessels without delays a feeder port in Belfast was designed and constructed. Offshore Windforce was responsible for tailoring the site to the complex logistical process. Two jack-up ships were deployed by the client for the installation of the monopiles: the Pacific Orca, one of the largest jack-up vessels in the market and the Sea Installer. Offshore WindForce was responsible for the extensive mobilization operation to prepare the two vessels for their specialist work. The jack-ups were equipped with an in-house designed up-ending bucket and a gripper frame which was designed by a specialist supplier. Early April the jack-up vessels arrived in Belfast and the installation of the first batch began. As all parts of the installation process are weather dependent a customized forecast system was developed and integrated into a detailed planning system. The monopiles weigh more than 500 tons each and they are almost 60 meters long depending on their location in the installation area. The transition pieces are 25 meters high and weigh 340 tons. One cycle of loading, sailing, and installing takes about 7 to 8 days. An Offshore Windforce crew, with 20 years of heavy lifting experience, operated the installation desk on board the jack ups. Using the innovative buckets and gripper frames, the world’s largest hydrohammer and state-of-the-art survey equipment the installation time of the foundations was cut/reduced with almost 40%. After handover to the client infield cables were installed and wind turbine generators were placed. The energy is transferred to land through a substation using an export cable. VBMS, another joint venture between Boskalis and Volker Wessels was responsible for laying the export cable. After the installation of the cables, a Boskalis fallpipe vessel placed the final scour protection layer around the piles using 95,000 tons of rock. The project was completed mid-2014. At West of Duddon Sands Boskalis offered tailor-made, innovative and economically attractive solutions and established its name as a successful Transport and Installation Contractor.

Related projects

Selected filters
TSHD_Barent_Zanen_backfilling_at_Denia_header.jpg

Landfall construction
Balearic submarine pipeline

As part of its network expansion program, Enagas undertook the installation of a submarine pipeline providing natural gas from the Spanish mainland to the Balearic Islands of Ibiza and Mallorca, integrating them into the Spanish gas system. This 20" nominal diameter pipeline was constructed in two distinct sections, one of 123 km between the mainland and Ibiza and another of 146 km between Ibiza and Mallorca.

Baydaratskaya_Bay.jpg

Installation gas pipeline, Baydaratskaya Bay

The Baydaratskaya Bay Project is located in the Kara Sea in the North of Russia. The Kara Sea is bordered on its western side by Novaya Zemlya and on the east by the North Siberian Coast. Baydaratskaya Bay is located in the south of the Kara Sea between the Ural Coast and the Yamal Peninsula. Yamalgasinvest (Gazprom) is planning the construction of four pipelines and two cable crossings at Baydaratskaya Bay for the exploitation of the Bovanenkova and Harasawejskoje gas field on the Yamal Peninsula.

DPFV_Seahorse_moors_for_loading_header.jpg

Free span rectification gas pipeline, East Java

The existing live 28" East Java Gas Pipeline runs offshore from the Kangean Block, close to Pagerungan Besar Island, Kangean Islands, Indonesia, through the Madura Strait and onshore via Porong to Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city.

Installation_of_cofferdam_to_enable_trench_excavation_through_surf_zone_header.jpg

Crude oil unloading facilities, Sri Racha

Thai Oil Public Company Limited is the largest petroleum oil refiner and supplier in Thailand. To enable Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) up to 320,000 DWT or a freight capacity of up to two million barrels to berth at Thai Oil's refinery in Sri Racha, Chonburi Province, a second Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) facility was installed approximately 14 km offshore, in water depths of around 30 m. From this buoy, a 52' diameter concrete coated steel pipeline had to be installed to the landfall location near the Thai Oil refinery.

HL_Stralsund_header.jpg

Bridge construction, Stralsund

SMIT’s 1,200 tonnes sheerlegs Taklift 7 completed a major German bridge building programme during 2006. The sheerlegs had spent several months at the new Stralsund Bridge, on the German Baltic coast. This suspension bridge links the mainland with the island of Rügen.

Rion_Antirion_header.jpg

Heavy lift operations, Rion Antirion bridge

The Rion Antirion bridge, a 2.3 km long cable stayed bridge, consisting of 4 pylons from which the bridge deck is suspended. SMIT was involved in two phases of the project. During the construction of the pylons, SMIT carried out the management for the tow-out and positioning. For the installation of the steel components SMIT carried out the heavy lift operations.