Viking Link completes seabed surveys in the North Sea

The Viking Link project has concluded its’ marine/seabed survey works along the 620 km submarine cable route between Great Britain and Denmark.

The survey exercise started in March, 2016 in the Danish waters across the southern North Sea, progressed through the German and Dutch waters before terminating in the UK.

From March to September, 2016 six specialised offshore vessels and a number of smaller near-shore  vessels were fully engaged to undertake geophysical, geotechnical, benthic and third party asset crossing surveys along the proposed 620 km route in the North Sea.

The work was carried by Fugro Survey BV, an independent marine consultant and jointly managed by the project partners.

Samples and data gathered were analysed and reviewed. The survey findings will help to understand the nature of the seabed and the project’s impact from environmental, ecological and engineering perspectives as well as identify an appropriate design specification for the cables and technical aspects such as cable burial depth in the seabed as well as determine a preferred submarine cable route between Great Britain and Denmark.

The seabed survey reports and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) will form part of the marine license application due for submission in 2^nd quarter of 2017 to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), which is Viking Link’s delegated National Competent Authority (NCA) for the project in Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark.

With over 93,000 man-hours spent over a total of 5700 km geophysical survey lines and Zero Lost Time Incidents (LTIs) recorded, the marine survey was a successful exercise and in line with the current program to obtain a Final Investment Decision in 2018.