Western Link Cable Laying Ops Move Forward

Cable laying vessel Giulio Verne and support vessel Go Pegasus are continuing with installation and survey work in the Irish Sea along the Western HVDC Link cable route, AWJ Marine informs.

The Western Link Project consists of installing two 600 kV DC submarine cables in the Irish Sea from Ardneil (Scotland) to Wirral (England) for a total route length of about 387 km.

The first campaign of about 117km has been now completed, together with the second campaign and the third campaign.

The first campaign 

The 28km of cable that has been in wet storage to the south of the Isle of Man since December 2015 has now been recovered, joined to the existing cable, and then laid and buried on the seabed.

The cable lay vessel Giulio Verne and the support vessel Go Pegasus are planned to conduct post survey on the third campaign. Operations are expected to be completed by the end of August
2016.

The fourth campaign

Starting in the second half of September 2016, the vessels Giulio Verne and Go Pegasus are due to be carrying out fourth campaign of the cable installation, which will run parallel to the recently completed third campaign. This work will start between the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland and will terminate in the mouth of the Clyde.

For the fourth Campaign (C6), the Western Link HVDC cable will be installed by using a laying and burial “in tandem” technique, in which the vessel Giulio Verne will surface lay the cable on the seabed, while a plough towed by its support vessel Go Pegasus will bury them at a short distance behind.