Fugro has been awarded a contract by Vineyard Wind, formerly named OffshoreMW, to perform a marine geotechnical site investigation within its wind development lease area south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Fugro’s 105-meter drilling vessel M/V Fugro Synergy will perform the study, which will include numerous seabed CPTs and exploration boreholes, along with sampling and downhole CPTs.
Following the fieldwork, a program of laboratory testing and reporting will be performed by Fugro’s offices in Houston,TX and Norfolk, VA.
The site investigation will be used to verify geologic ground models that Vineyard Wind is developing based on previous geophysical data collected from the 166,866-acre lease area.
The investigation is planned to start before the end of October and take around two to three weeks.
Earlier this month, Fugro Synergy started a geotechnical survey at the site of DONG Energy’s proposed Bay State Wind offshore wind farm which is bordering with Vineyard Wind’s lease area.
At the beginning of 2015, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held a competitive offshore wind lease sale in federal waters offshore Massachusetts and named RES America Developments and Offshore MW as the winners of Lease Area OCS-A 0500 and OCS-A 0501, respectively.
RES subsequently sold the lease and the project rights to DONG Energy which now plans to construct the 1,000MW Bay State Wind offshore wind farm at the site.
In late August 2016, Danish fund management company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) acquired 100% of OffshoreMW, which has since re-branded itself to Vineyard Wind to reflect ”both the project’s proximity to the island as well as the long-standing ties with the local Vineyard Power Cooperative.”