1) Viking Link Project The Viking Link project is a proposal to build a high voltage direct current (HVDC) electricity interconnector between the Lincolnshire Coast in the UK and Southern Jutland in Denmark crossing through the territorial waters of both the Netherlands and Germany. Viking Link is being jointly developed by National Grid Viking Link Limited, and Energinet.dk, the Danish transmission system operator. Intertek and NIRAS have been named as project consultants and will be responsible for securing offshore consent from UK, Netherlands, German and Danish Authorities to install submarine and underground cabling with optional Fibre optic cables for the project, while also delivering the offshore route design, environmental assessment and marine survey work. Specialist Marine Consultants Ltd has been appointed by Intertek to support the project by providing fisheries liaison services which incorporates a fishing activity assessment. The marine cable landing points and indicative route options being (subject to finalisation) are shown in Figure 1. Appendix 1 & 2 displays further route point position & chart information. Figure 1: The Proposed Survey and Cable Route Options (subject to finalisation) 1
2) Project Plan Offshore Survey Work and Consultation 2016 This route is currently under review and to assist in the final route selection an offshore survey programme is planned to commence in April 2016. We have discussed potential route corridors with marine stakeholders and have carried out desktop surveys to gain an understanding of known constraints in the area, such as environmental designations, environmentally sensitive areas, wind farm development locations, aggregate extraction areas, important navigational routes, anchorage areas, the seabed and shallow geology and mobile sediment. Over the coming months, we will hold further consultations with marine stakeholders, including fishermen, Natural England, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Marine and Coastguard Agency, the Chamber of Shipping, The Crown Estate and Asset owners to understand and limit the impact of our proposals to the marine and coastal environment. We have identified two potential route corridors in the UK; a Northern and Southern route for the submarine cables as shown in Figure 1. Both route corridors have advantages and disadvantages and we will be undertaking consultation to determine the most suitable route corridor which will be surveyed. Both corridors can be routed to any of the three potential landfall sites in Lincolnshire. A geophysical, benthic, geotechnical and cable crossing survey will be undertaken which will comprise Multibeam (MB), Side Scan Sonar (SSS), Sub-Bottom Profiler (SBP), Magnetometer (M), Grab Sampling (GS), Drop Down Camera (DDC), 2m Beam Trawl (BT), Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), Vibrocore (VC) and Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) equipment. The survey contractor will use the following vessels, survey spreads and indicative survey schedule (subject to weather, standby days and operational delays) within each sector shown in Table 1. Table 1: Offshore Survey Schedule Survey Type Sector Vessel Proposed Timings Survey Gear / Plan (2016) Geophysical Denmark Frontier 17 March- 14 April Geophysical MB/SSS/SBP/M 550m route corridor, 75m line spacing German Netherlands UK - Offshore Frontier/Pioneer 4 April 05 May (UK commence 16 th April) Geophysical MB/SSS/SBP/M 550m route corridor, 75m line spacing Benthic UK- Inshore Denmark German Netherlands UK - Offshore Valkyrie Discovery Frontier/Pioneer MV (TBC) Frontier/Pioneer Frontier/Pioneer Frontier/Pioneer 18 April-11 May 16 May-2 June 6-10 April GS/DDC 11 August 24 August 5-12 May Geophysical MB/SSS/SBP/M Geophysical MB/SSS/SBP/M 550m route corridor, 75m line spacing GS/DDC/B 5-12 May GS/DDC 5-12 May GS/DDC 2
Geotechnical UK- Inshore Discovery 31 May-2 June GS/DDC Denmark German Netherlands MV Markab 20 April -3 July VC/CPT UK - Offshore UK- Inshore Voe Earl 10-22 June VC/CPT ROV- Cable Crossing Investigation All Meridian 28 April- 28 May ROV 4) Vessel Details Name: Frontier Vessel Bridge: +31 10 7130 936 Type: ROV and Survey Vessel Owner/Operator: Call Sign: C6BH4 IMO No: 9701657 Survey Gear Geophysical/Benthic (Multibeam/Side Scan/ Sub Bottom Profiler/Grab/Camera) Name: Pioneer Vessel Bridge: +31 10 7130 944 Type: ROV and Survey Vessel Owner/Operator: Call Sign: C6BH3 IMO No: 9701645 Survey Gear Geophysical/Benthic (Multibeam/Side Scan/ Sub Bottom Profiler/Grab/Camera) Name: MV Markab Vessel Bridge: +49 421 944 024 3061 Type: ROV and Survey Vessel Owner/Operator: Hempel Shipping/ Call Sign: HO2743 IMO No: 7424724 Survey Gear Geotechnical Vibrocore/CPT 3
Name: Meridian Vessel Bridge Number: +44 122 4257 621 Type: ROV and Survey Vessel Owner/Operator: Call Sign: C6QR4 IMO No: 8101331 Survey Gear ROV Name: Valkyrie Type: Survey Vessel Owner/Operator: Call Sign: 2BWA9 IMO No: - Survey Gear Geophysical and benthic (Multibeam/side scan/grab/camera) Name: Discovery Type: Survey Vessel Vessel Bridge: +44 787 6454 806 Owner/Operator: Call Sign: 2AEL8 IMO No: - Survey Gear Geophysical and Benthic (Multibeam/side scan/grab/camera) 4
Name: Voe Earl Type: Anchor/Tug Owner/Operator: Delta Marine / Call Sign: 2FEP6 IMO No: 9639983 Survey Gear Vibrocore/CPT 3) Cable Route Plan Coordinates A list of the cable route waypoints are included in Appendix 1. 4) Provision of Fisheries Liaison and Consultation Service It is our intention to provide fishing interests with as much information as possible and to feedback to the project any correspondence and points raised so that these can be addressed prior to works commencing and assist with an initial fishing activity assessment. Detailed below is a list of those main identified fishing organisations SMC will contact to outline survey and project timetables and operations with these notices. If any recipient is aware of organisations that require information and are not included on this list, it would be appreciated if their details could be provided to us for future notifications. National Federation Fishermen s Organisations Danish Fishermens Producer Organisation Deutscher Fischerei Verband Sveriges Fiskares Riksforbund Scottish Fishermen s Organisation North Eastern and Eastern IFCA North Sea Advisory Council Marine Management Organisation Union des Armateurs a la Peche de france UAPF De Redercentrale C.V- Belgium Visned Dutch Fishing Organisation Nederlandse Visserbond Scottish White Fish producers Association Scottish Fishermen s Federation 5
5) Onshore Fisheries Liaison SMC FLO contact details are listed below: Simon Prince telephone: 01723 892861 / 07920 273866 Email: simonp@smchse.com In addition to this, information produced on the project will also be displayed on SMC s website www.fisheriesliaison.com under Projects: Viking Link Interconnector. More detailed higher resolution charts are available to download. If there are any questions you have regarding the forthcoming survey works, please feel free to raise these using the contact details supplied. Further information updates will be provided. 6
Appendix 1 7
Appendix 2 8
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