SeaRoc has awarded FoundOcean the grouting contract for Narec’s Offshore Anemometry Hub (NOAH), which is located three nautical miles off the coast of Blyth. The installation will be equipped with a variety of monitoring sensors to collect the necessary environmental data to inform the development, construction and operation of the proposed Blyth Offshore Wind Demonstration Site.
"The NOAH facility is a very interesting project and we are excited to be a part of it," commented Jim Bell, MD for FoundOcean.
The 60m high tripod foundation, which weighs 535t, will support a 70t platform and a 25t meteorological mast. The platform will be secured using a rock socket grouted connection and a grouted pile sleeve connection located at each of its three legs, due to the condition of the seabed.
The grouting operations will take place in two stages. First, the jacket will be placed on the seabed at a depth of 38m. Next, a 10m-deep rock socket will be drilled through the pile sleeve. FoundOcean will then mix and pump a specialist grout into the socket. Immediately following this, a stab-in pile will be lowered through the sleeve and into the grouted rock socket. The remaining two rock socket connections will follow the same procedure.
Once the rock socket connections are established, FoundOcean will inject grout into the three annuli between the piles and the tripod sleeves via connectors above sea level.
The grouting operations are due to take place in November 2012.