Congratulations to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation which has been chosen by Equinor and BP to perform the subsea rock installation work for the Empire Wind I and II wind farms off the U.S. East Coast, in consortium with Van Oord.
Great Lakes will use a Jones Act compliant subsea rock installation vessel, currently under construction at a Shipyard in Philadelphia, to install rocks to protect and stabilize monopile foundations, electrical substructures, and export cables. These will be installed in the Empire Wind I project in the mid-2020s and then with the Empire Wind II project. Van Oord will mobilize its flexible fallpipe vessel, STORNES to install rock prior to the installation of the monopile foundations.
Van Oord is a global market leader in subsea rock installation. They will partner with Great Lakes which apparently is the first U.S. marine contractor to invest in building a Jones Act compliant fallpipe vessel purpose built for the U.S. offshore wind market.
Great Lakes says it will be generating local content, employment, and economic activity in the State of New York by purchasing rock from domestic New York quarries, which are in close proximity to the Empire Wind I and II offshore wind farm sites. The company is working closely with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) on New York state supply chain development and will be using the GLDD marine base in Staten Island, N.Y., for its site operations. GLDD notes that it has a long history in the state of New York with local unions and supply chains, having executed dredging projects in the New York area for many decades.