Construction of the first American offshore wind farm is progressing quite well, judging by Deepwater Wind’s posts on social media pages. By September 18, the wind farm had 4 out of 5 steel jacket foundations in place.
Vessels working on foundation installation are the floating barge crane Weeks 533 and self-elevating crane vessel Robert . A steel jacket structure is first put into position and then four piles are hammered into the seabed.
Installation works at the site, located some 4.8 km off the Block Island coast, began on July 26, when the first foundation was installed after a slight delay due to harsh weather conditions.
Also, Deepwater Wind had to work on the safety approach with its offshore contractors when ABS Group reported several issues during the offshore construction.
None of these setbacks will affect the project’s schedule, the company then said, and the wind farm is still on the way to be operational in the autumn next year.
The installation of cables and erecting five Alstom’s Haliade 6MW turbines are also scheduled for 2016.
Offshore WIND Staff; Image: Deepwater Wind/Jeff Grybowski