GEOxyz has been awarded a contract by RTE for a UXO survey off the coast of Normandy, France. The survey will cover the cable corridors of two OWF grid connections for Centre Manche 1 (CM1) and Centre Manche 2 (CM2), and is scheduled to be performed during Spring/Summer 2023.
RTE, the French Transmission System Operator, is responsible for the grid connections CM1 and CM2 for 2.5GW new offshore wind farms in the Channel. This includes the export cables and offshore substations. The export cable corridor for CM1 is about 65km long and the export cable corridor for CM2 is about 75km long.
Our team at GEOxyz will perform a survey of the Subsea Cable Link (SCL) corridor, with the primary aim of providing data for RTE's risk analysis on potential Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) density in the area. In addition to this, our surveyors will provide bathymetry data to estimate hydro-sedimentary motion and allow DRASSM to perform a submarine archaeological assessment of the region.
To perform the survey, we will use a variety of equipment, including a surface positioning system, underwater positioning system, high-resolution side scan sonar, multi-beam echo sounder, gradiometer rigid frame, and a through-hull frame mounted sub-bottom profiler. The survey will be conducted with 100% coverage to ensure the data collected is accurate and reliable.
Two of our vessels will be used for the survey - the Geo Ocean VI for the offshore part and the Geosurveyor XI for the nearshore section. The data collected from the survey will include MBES gridded geotiff, SSS mosaics at 0.1m resolution, gridded residual gradient, and a listing of MBES, SSS, SBP & GRAD targets with features, positioning, size, correlation, and analysis of contacts.
Our people at GEOxyz are excited to take part in the development of the grid connection for these two new OWF’s in the Channel.
Released on 04-05-2023
