With a new phase of construction for the South Fork Wind farm to begin early next month, its developers will issue updates during a virtual open house on Monday at 6 p.m. Registration is at bit.ly/3AWHyA2.
Work at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott is scheduled to begin on Oct. 3. The wind farm’s export cable is to make landfall there and travel about four miles below ground along town roads and the Long Island Rail Road corridor to a Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton. The work will include horizontal directional drilling in the sea-to-shore transition area and a barge that will bury the cable below the ocean beach.
Active drilling is scheduled to begin in November and may continue until May 1, 2023. Resurfacing of the asphalt on Beach Lane and restoration of the grassy shoulder are scheduled for April.
The cable is to be set approximately 80 feet under the beach and encased in a plastic conduit. Onshore cabling will be buried at least three feet beneath roads and other rights of way.
The developers of New York State’s first offshore wind farm, Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource Energy, assert that there will be no impact to the beach during cable installation or operation. Access to the ocean beach from Beach Lane will be maintained with the exception of brief, temporary restrictions during installation, they say.
Onshore construction for the 12-turbine, 132-megawatt wind farm, to be situated in federal waters approximately 35 miles east of Montauk Point, began last winter with trenching and installation of conduit on Beach Lane and on Wainscott Northwest Road, Sayre’s Path, and Wainscott Main Street, continuing toward the Long Island Rail Road corridor to the LIPA substation, where the wind farm will connect to the electrical grid.
Haugland Energy Group of Melville is installing the underground duct system for the wind farm’s onshore transmission line and leads construction of the project’s new onshore interconnection facility off Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton.
Offshore construction is to begin next year, and the wind farm is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2023.
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the South Fork Wind farm’s Construction and Operations Plan, the final federal approval needed for the project’s construction to commence, in January. In February, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland were among the dignitaries on hand at LTV Studios in Wainscott for a ceremonial groundbreaking on the installation.
East Hampton Town and the town trustees agreed last year to allow the onshore components of the wind farm in exchange for a host-community agreement that will pay the town and trustees around $29 million over 25 years.
The developers hosted a virtual open house in November to discuss the start of onshore construction. It can be viewed at bit.ly/3QnwNMt. Answers to frequently asked questions are at bit.ly/3D1q0W4. Further questions can be directed to the developers by emailing [email protected] or calling 631-887-5470.
