The Department of Transport has been advised that the North Irish Sea Array (NISA) intends to undertake a geotechnical site investigation campaign on the proposed offshore wind farm area and cable corridor, off the coast of north Co Dublin, Meath and Louth.
This campaign will be undertaken by N-Sea and Geoquip Marine and will involve the deployment of seabed borehole drilling, cone penetration testing (CPT) and vibrocores from survey vessels at specific locations within the NISA OWF and cable corridor area detailed below.
The campaign will start on Wednesday 1 November and will run for a period of four weeks, subject to weather and operational constraints.
Surveys will be confined to distinct locations within the proposed wind farm array and cable corridor area, a total area of approximately 125 sq km. This wider area forms an irregular shape spanning approximately 16km north-south and 25km east-west at its widest points. The survey area extends to landfall near Bremore. All operations will be within the 12-nautical-mile limit.
The survey area is bounded by points listed and set out in the map included in Marine Notice No 69 of 2023, which is available to download below.
Surveys will be conducted by the Noordhoek Pathfinder (callsign PBYN) and Geoquip Seehorn (callsign 5BSW5) on a 24-hour basis. As the survey vessels will be restricted in their ability to manoeuvre when surveying, due to the deployment of the seabed sampling equipment for the duration of the survey activities, other vessels are kindly requested to keep a wide berth.
The survey vessels will display appropriate lights and signals. Mariners are advised to keep continuous watch on VHF Channel 16 when navigating the area.
Further details, including contact information, can be found in the Marine Notice attached below.