Major Eco Project Gets HBPW ‘Green Light’!

HBPW has been playing a key role in the £2.6bn Beatrice Offshore Windfarm project, said to be one of the largest private investments ever made in Scottish infrastructure.

The mammoth scheme, only given the green light in May, is being jointly led by Scottish energy company SSE, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Repsol Nuevas Energias (UK), collectively known as Beatrice Offshore Wind Ltd (BOWL).

But, before work could begin in earnest, geoenvironmental engineer, Jay Fox, was called in by specialist marine heavy load delivery consultancy, Wynns Ltd, to give his critical opinion on the state of the ground at Buckie Harbour in the ‘whisky county’ of Moray.

Jay said: “Buckie Harbour, sometimes referred to as Cluny Harbour, was the first mass concrete facility of its type, in the UK, built in the late 1800’s.

“It is also the place where sea going coasters will deliver very heavy transformers and  reactors weighing in excess of 200 tonnes each. This required assessments as to whether Pier No. 1 was capable of taking the weight of a quayside heavy lift crane, as well as heavy engineering deliveries.

A sonic drilling rig was used to pierce half a metre of concrete and create three 10m deep bore holes, enabling engineers to determine that the harbour was in good condition and up to the lifting task.

Beatrice Eco Power!

Due to the lack of information on ground conditions and the construction of the 19^th century pier and adjacent in-filled basin, further ground investigation was required in order to provide stakeholders with the confidence that heavy lifts could take place safely.

“The initial challenge was researching historical records and engineering drawings, some of which went back to the late 1800’s, but, combined with ground investigation, we were able to give the wider project an HBPW green light, at least when it comes to landing heavy engineering parts at Buckie Harbour!” said Jay.

The 588MW, 84-turbine, wind farm will be situated in the Outer Moray Firth and is expected to power approximately 450,000 homes; around three times the number of homes in the Moray and Highland regions.

Construction at the new £10m operations and maintenance facility in Wick and the transmission works in Moray, will commence this year. Offshore construction will begin next year and the wind farm is expected to become fully operational in 2019.

Beatrice is also expected to bring a range of socio-economic benefits to the local, regional, Scottish and UK economies during both the construction and operational phases.  Expected opportunities include job creation, skills training, investment in Scottish ports and harbours, supply chain opportunities and community benefit funding.