Heerema Marine Contractors has secured a statement of feasibility from certification outfit DNV GL for two ‘silent’ pile foundation installation techniques.
The Dutch company has won approval for helical or screw piles and so called push-in piles, which have been tested and modelled along with the University of Dundee in Scotland.
Heerema said such techniques do away with loud hammering, which can be harmful to marine life and require noise mitigation systems that produce a “considerable CO2 footprint”.
“As part of a technology qualification process, the results were extensively discussed with DNV GL, and several workshops were conducted to review the foundation concepts and the development results,” stated Heerema.
“The Statements of Feasibility are the first formal step towards qualifying these technologies for actual use in offshore structures.”