Geoquip Marine has secured a contract to carry out geotechnical survey work at Dominion Energy and Orsted’s 2600MW Coastal Virginia offshore wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The contract covers the drilling of deep boreholes and deep push seabed cone penetration tests (CPTs) at multiple locations in the main lease area, as well as shallow push seabed CPTs and shallow boreholes at multiple locations along the export cable route.
Geoquip Marine is also responsible for all laboratory testing and final geotechnical reporting.
Three vessels – Geoquip Saentis, Geoquip Speer (pictured), and Dina Polaris – will be deployed for the job.
All three vessels are fitted with an offshore soil laboratory, enabling Geoquip geotechnical engineers to conduct soil classification and determine strength parameters for design, analysis and assessments in real time.
The data allows engineers to prepare borehole logs onboard as the borehole progresses, allowing an optimisation of the actual borehole depth, the company said.
Geoquip Marine chief executive Stewart Higginson said: “The project specifications include borehole depths, for some borings to 120 metres.
“There are very few specialist vessels available for the work, and we are proud that we are able to mobilise three of our drill ships to fulfil the project requirements.”