The Bokalift 2, an approximately 750-foot-long vessel that will be used to install foundations for the South Fork Wind farm, arrived off Newport, R.I., last week and is now at the wind farm’s site, in a federal lease area around 35 miles off Montauk Point.
The Bokalift 2, owned by Boskalis, a global dredging and offshore contractor, first completed federal inspections before transiting to the wind farm site.
With onshore construction complete, the ship’s arrival heralds the imminent “steel in the water” phase of the project, the installation of the first monopile foundation within the 12-turbine, 132-megawatt wind farm. Once that foundation is set, a 1,500-ton, 60-foot-tall substation, a topside structure, will be installed atop the monopile foundation. It will collect the power generated by the turbines and connect it to the electrical grid. Construction of the foundations for the wind farm’s 12 turbines will follow.
Weather or sea conditions may affect the installations’ schedule. Mariners’ briefings are at us.orsted.com/renewable-energy-solutions/offshore-wind/mariners.
The developers, Orsted and Eversource Energy, have said that New York State’s first offshore wind farm will be operational by year’s end.
