Geoquip Marine to support offshore wind project in Virginia

Offshore geotechnical engineering and drilling company Geoquip Marine has secured a contract to work on the development of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) commercial project off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The Geoquip Marine vessels deployed on this project are docked in Newport News, Virginia, and the CVOW project is being developed by Richmond-based Dominion Energy. It is the largest single offshore wind project in the US and is the first to be commissioned by a US electric utility for connection to the power grid.

The contract stipulates the drilling of deep boreholes and deep-push seabed cone penetration tests (CPTs) at multiple locations in the main lease area plus shallow push seabed CPTs and shallow boreholes at multiple locations along the export cable route.

Geoquip Marine is responsible for all laboratory testing and final geotechnical reporting for the main lease area and along the export cable route.

The vessels that will serve the project are the drillships Geoquip Saentis, Geoquip Speer (pictured), and Dina Polaris.

All three vessels are fitted with an offshore soil laboratory, enabling Geoquip geotechnical engineers to conduct offshore soil classification and determine strength parameters for design, analysis, and assessments in real-time.