Red7Marine Celebrate 1000th dive
at Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm

Red7Marine, a leading UK specialist diving and marine construction company is proud to report the successful completion of the 1,000th commercial dive at the Greater Gabbard site, which when completed will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm being constructed by Fluor of Camberley, UK.

In what can be considered a milestone achievement at this remote and aggressive offshore location, and being the largest single ongoing diving project of its type within the UK, completion of this number dives is a demonstration of the absolute commitment of the project management and offshore diving teams who continue to work tirelessly on the multitude of subsea construction activities that Red7Marine has been contracted to undertake.

Correct resourcing is always key to productivity and it is due to Fluor’s endorsement of utilising offshore technology and techniques that in turn have allowed Red7Marine to maximise diveability throughout the last 10 months with virtually nil downtime on weather or for technical reasons. Working closely with Fluor, in May 2009 it became evident that the decision to utilise divers on the contract would present a considerable programme of subsea works and so procedures were developed by R7M to undertake diving on a 24hr basis with back to back diving operations being a necessity.

To this end the 82m DPII vessel ‘Relume’ was chartered and subsequently Red7Marine mobilised one of its IMCA compliant twin 1.8m deck decompression chambers/dive control systems on board c/w Nitrox, divers hot water, and twin deployment & hydraulic systems, as required when working from DPII vessels.

Diving works to date includes installation of monopile J-tubes, reference electrodes, messenger wires, UXO clearance & neutralisation, anomaly identification and dredging, with marine & surface works including cable de-trenching, out of service cable recovery, pile cleaning and route clearance, plus provision of surface cutting crews working from the ‘Leviathan’ lift boat to remove internal stiffener rings welded within the monopiles. Additional diving works planned for the coming months includes cable installation support duties and mattress installation, and R7M expects to continue providing Fluor with high level support services as has been demonstrated to date throughout the construction phase of the project.

Red7Marine has clearly demonstrated to the offshore marine renewables developers that utilisation of commercial diving services at offshore wind farm locations is both safe and productive, and by choosing the right partner company, the client can benefit by reaping the rewards that companies like Red7Marine provides.

The project site is located approximately 25 kilometres offshore adjacent to two sand banks known as the Inner Gabbard and The Galloper. The 147-square kilometre project site will encompass the wind turbines and associated infrastructure, including the met masts and offshore substation platforms. Connection to the high-voltage national grid will be made at a new onshore substation located at Sizewell, Suffolk.

The project is expected to provide carbon-neutral, renewable electricity for more than 415,000 homes and will make a significant contribution to meeting the U.K. Government’s 2010 renewable energy targets.