Fugro has placed surrogate unexploded ordnance (UXO) items on the seabed at the Beatrice offshore wind farm area to enable towed magnetometer verification as part of the pre-construction UXO survey, according to Brown & May Marine. The surrogate units are inert and do not contain any explosive charge.
After completing the UXO survey of the nearshore extent of the Beatrice export cable route in 2015, Fugro is now searching for UXO at the locations of all the 84 wind turbines, offshore transformer modules, jack-up stand-off locations, and along the inter array cable corridors, and will carry out the removal of all the UXO potentially found at the site.
These survey works are done ahead of the construction at the site, in order to confirm that each site is free from potential UXO or other items that may pose a hazard to offshore construction works, which are expected to start in 2017.
The company’s vessels MS Fugro Helmert, MV Fugro Meridian and MV Fugro Frontier will be deployed at the site over a planned minimum period of the survey of 8 weeks, weather permitting.