Germany opens tender for geophysical and hydrographic surveys at N-9 wind zone

Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) has invited tenders for geophysical investigations and hydrographic surveys as part of the geological preliminary exploration in the N-9 wind energy area.

Specifically, the sites to be surveyed within the area in the North Sea are N-9.1, N-9.3 and N-9.4. The work under this tender at the N-9.1 site will commence in 2021, while N-9.3 and N-9.4 are to start undergoing these investigations the following year.

The tender has been divided into two lots, whereby bidders can submit a main offer on of of the lots, with the services of specialist lots 1 & 2 combined in the form of a side offer.

The first lot covers geophysical subsoil investigations in the three wind farm project areas. These include the measurement of a given profile grid using a sediment echo sounder and high-resolution multi-channel seismics. In addition, there is the processing of the recorded data sets, their evaluation and documentation, as well as the determination of suitable locations for the subsequent geotechnical explorations.

The hydrographic survey work includes the area-wide measurement of the respective areas by means of fan echo sounders, side viewing sonar including ground truth, sediment echo sounder and magnetometer as well as video investigations by means of ROV. In addition, there is data processing, evaluation and documentation of the services, according to BSH’s invitation to tender.

Interested parties can submit bids until 10 November 2020.

The procurement will be done under accelerated procedure after BSH published prior information on this tender in the second half of August.

The contract(s) will be in effect from 1 January 2021 until 15 December 2022.

The hydrographic services for each area are to be completed by 1 November of the respective survey year, while the services related to geophysical investigations must be completed 14 weeks after the end of the respective offshore measurement, no later than 15 November of the corresponding research year.