Jobs Coming To Wick - Video Shows What To Expect
5th January 2018
The Moray Firth is in large part going to be serviced from Wick in Caithness.
Milestones are being reached every month.
Check the video from another set of turbines already in operation to get an idea of what is coming to Wick - Job, Jobs, Jobs.
See video at bottom of the page.
Building Beatrice Milestones
January 2017
The 11th January saw our first significant
milestone of 2017, with the Highland
Council granting consent for the
renovation of two historic Thomas
Telford buildings on Wick's harbour
front. The buildings will become
our long term operational home
and the base for up to 90
employees who will maintain and
operate Beatrice.
We also moved in to our temporary
offices in Wick ahead of work getting
underway on the building renovations
and the remainder of our £15m
investment in the harbour.
February 2017
February saw the beginning of
offshore construction activity with
the arrival and deployment of the
marker buoys which delineate the
offshore construction site itself,
located around 11.5km from the
Caithness coast (at its nearest point).
We also completed the purchase
arrangements for the two Wick
harbour buildings, heralding the start
of their new roles supporting marine
based activities which was their
purpose when built 200 years ago.
March 2017
March saw the delivery of the Direct Pipe thruster
which would help install cable pipes under the
Moray coastline and we launched our new digital
home at www.beatricewind.com.
Preparation for the Wick renovation work continued
with the introduction of traffic management in order
to keep everyone safe and disruption to a minimum.
The milestones kept on coming with the delivery of
the 700t offshore Pile Installation Frame (PIF) and
confirmation of the appointment of local Wick
contractors GMR Henderson to complete the initial
‘take down' phase of the building renovation works.
The port of Cromarty Firth secured two significant
contracts and the BiFab fabrication yard at Arnish on
the Isle of Lewis despatched the first of their
foundation piles to the offshore construction site.
April 2017
The first of the BiFab foundation piles were
installed on Sunday 2 April by the Seaway
Heavy Lifting (SHL) vessel Stanislav Yudin.
Offshore pile installation continued throughout
the month alongside onshore construction
activity at Wick and in Moray. Our fabricators
remained focussed on the construction of the
foundation piles (all 344 of them) and the 86
jacket substructures on which the turbines and
two offshore transformer modules would
eventually sit.
Wick welcomed the distinctive Rix Lynx crew
transfer vessel which is based there to support
the Seaway Heavy Lifting construction activity.
We saw April out with a hi-vis clad piper escorting
the last concrete delivery on to our Blackhillock
substation which marked the change of focus
from civil engineering to mechanical and
electrical works
May 2017
As well as marking our first year of construction,
May saw the first complete jacket substructures
and the two offshore transformer modules taking
shape in Rosyth.
And we launched the first round of the Beatrice
Caithness Local Fund which makes £2m available
to help local groups and organisations realise their
own project ambitions.
Buckie harbour played host to a specialist offshore
trenching vessel ahead of deployment to the
nearshore cable route works and we celebrated
the safe installation of 20% of the foundation piles.
Whilst most of the effort was about construction,
in Wick, the take down works continued on our
future home, stripping the buildings to a safe state
ahead of main renovation beginning.
June 2017
We began the month by announcing a total of
£378,000 in the first grant funding from the
Beatrice Partnership Fund.
In Fife, BiFab upended the first of their 26 1,000t
jackets and our contractors successfully
delivered the two transformers to the
Blackhillock substation.
In Newcastle, Northern PowerGrid raised the
height of the network wires spanning the River
Tyne so that the first of the jacket substructures
could make their way on barges from the
manufacturers to the site.
July 2017
The publication of the Beatrice socioeconomic
report took centre stage noting
that the project was expected to add
£1.13bn to the UK GDP, of which around
£530m would be added to the Scottish
economy.
And Beatrice is expected to support more
than 18,100 years of full time employment in
the UK with around 5,800 of those in
Scotland.
Construction and manufacturing forged
ahead with our contractors passing the
foundation installation halfway mark (more
than 172 piles installed offshore).
August 2017
The first of the 1,000t jacket
substructures was installed by the
Seaway Heavy Lifting vessel ‘Oleg
Strashnov' marking another
significant milestone for the project.
The jackets are fabricated in Scotland,
England and Europe.
The Hartlepool based Inter-Array
cable manufacturer completed all
140km of subsea cable ready for
installation. The cables will connect
the 84 turbines to the two Offshore
Transformer Modules.
And we passed the 3/4 mark for
safely installed foundation piles.
September 2017
With favourable weather conditions,
September continued to see rapid
offshore construction progress with
72 pile clusters and 18 jackets
installed by mid-month which was
testament to the teamwork of all
involved.
Isle of Wight based SeaCat Services
were awarded the contract to provide
two Crew Transfer Vessels to support
the construction activities offshore.
The first vessel, the ‘Intrepid' arrived
in Wick on the 23rd.
And we were proud to be the
principle sponsors of the annual
Caithness Chamber of Commerce
dinner.
October 2017
As we moved towards the winter
months, the offshore installation tally
reached 80 of 86 foundation pile
clusters and more than a quarter of the
jacket substructures.
The Nexans cable laying vessel, the
‘Skagerrak' began laying the first export
cable (total length of 67km) from the
Moray coastline to the wind farm site.
The two Direct Pipe landfall conduits
were completed ahead of the pull-in of
the offshore length of export cables
enabling connection to the onshore
cables.
November 2017
Whilst challenging weather conditions slowed
some progress offshore, it did not delay the
start of Inter-Array Cable installation by the
Siem vessels ‘Stingray' and ‘Aimery'.
Building renovation continued in Wick and
work began on the removal of the disused
slipway at the corner of the harbour which will
become home to our Crew Transfer Vessels.
And we were delighted to announce that the
Beatrice Community Funding had already
granted £650,000 to help local groups and
organisations realise their own project
ambitions.
December 2017
We began the month safely installing the
final pile cluster marking a very significant
milestone in the offshore construction effort.
The first of the jacket substructures left the
BiFab fabrication yard in Fife in readiness for
installation and, at Babcock in Rosyth, the
first of the Offshore Transformer Modules
were loaded onto a transportation barge in
preparation for installation early next year.
