Research company TDI-Brooks has been awarded a geophysical, geotechnical and benthic sampling survey campaign to study seabed conditions within offshore wind project lease area and potential export cable corridors off the U.S. 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 two years.
TDI-Brooks expects to begin the program in April and will continue through summer 2023 with three vessels in operations. Since 2021, TDI-Brooks has been moving forward in an emerging market performing marine site investigations for several of the offshore wind operators on the U.S. East Coast. The geotechnical component along cable routes and within lease blocks consist of deploying a variety of tools including the Feritech FT550 electric and TDI-Brooks-designed pneumatic vibrocorer (pVC) systems along with the 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.
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 two research vessels: RV Brooks McCall and RV Miss Emma McCall. Both vessels are currently working on the U.S. East Coast performing G&G surveys for offshore wind programs.
News item from TDI-Brooks
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