Marine Construction Services

Project Overview:
After nearly four months of grueling work 50 ft beneath the state beach in Rhode Island, crews have finished drilling a 2,250 ft tunnel for the conduit that will carry power from the 30 MW wind farm to a National Grid switching station in Narragansett, R.I. The installation of undersea and underground cable and related infrastructure supports transfer of power from a five-turbine offshore wind farm to Block Island and to the mainland power grid.

Location: Narragansett, RI
Completion Date: 2016

Project Overview:
CMI was contacted by Prysmian Cable in the beginning of 2019 to install a replacement cable across the Potomac River in front of the Jefferson Memorial. The project was complicated by large cable reels and low railroad bridges. To overcome this a sectional cable lay barge was mobilized with moon pools to allow the reels to be recessed into the deck to achieve clearance under the bridges of the Potomac. The barge was fitted with winches, survey suite, cable handling equipment, and an overboard chute for the cable lay. During the summer of 2019, the sectional barge was mobilized at a facility in Baltimore and towed to the Port of Baltimore to pick up the cable reels. The reels and flexi-float barge will then be towed from Baltimore to Washington DC.  CMI installed two circuits approximately 3000 ft each of submarine cable across the Potomac River into previously installed conduits and BHM. The cables were laid via anchor across the Potomac. This submarine cable installation project was completed on time and within budget.

Location: Potomac River, Virginia and Washington, DC
Completion Date: 2019

Project Overview:
Bayonne Energy Center, LLC. (BEC, the Owner) contracted ABB to manufacture and install the transmission system, including the submarine cables, underground cables, infrastructure, and terminations needed to transmit power from the new 512 MW gas turbine generation plant in Bayonne, NJ. The completed Bayonne Energy Center cable system will transmit the energy output of the plant over a roughly 6.75 mile long 345 kV submarine/underground cable system to Con Edison’s Gowanus substation in Brooklyn, NY.

In support of the Bayonne Energy Center (BEC) 345kV Submarine Cable Installation Project, Caldwell Marine International, LLC (CMI) was contracted by ABB Inc. (ABB) to perform the installation of a three-phase 345kV submarine cable system across New York Harbor, including the installation of the underground power cable sections, connecting the Bayonne Energy Center power generating station in Bayonne, New Jersey to the Con-Edison 25th Street Substation in Brooklyn, New York.

Each power cable is paired with a fiber optic (FO) cable. Each phase is divided into the three segments:

• The Brooklyn terrestrial cables (Installed through duct banks)
• Brooklyn – Bayonne Submarine Cables
• The Bayonne terrestrial cables (Installed through duct banks)

Each segment was spliced into one continuous length after the installation. The entire system is comprised of three continuous pairs of power and FO cable, each carrying one phase of the three phase system.

Location: Bayonne, NJ to Brooklyn, NY
Completion Date: 2011

Project Overview:
Caldwell Marine International, LLC. successfully installed 87,500 meters (54.4 miles) of high voltage submarine power cable in Vancouver, British Columbia. The $295-million VITR project replaces an aging 135 kV transmission cable with a new 600MW-242kV system, providing Vancouver Island and the Southern Gulf Islands with safe reliable energy to meet their needs far into the future. Under contract with Mitsubishi International, work included marine route survey operations, cable route engineering, freighting of 6000+ metric tons of submarine cable from Japan to Vancouver, submarine power cable installation from Caldwell Marine International’s Dynamic Positioning (DP-II) cable lay barge, ROV touchdown monitoring, and specialized low-impact submarine cable laying through environmentally sensitive Eel Grass (Zostera marina) beds.

Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Completion Date: 2009

Project Overview:
Major power system infrastructure project involving the placement of new underwater transmission cables, spanning 1.7 miles, across Lake Champlain. The new power cables, laid as much as 195 feet below the lake’s surface, enable power flow to and from Vermont along with improved power communications systems. Work involved uniquely drilling into bedrock to avoid disrupting the shoreline habitat, remotely operating underwater vehicles, and cable laying vessels and divers.

Location: Lake Champlain, NY
Completion Date: 2018

Project Overview:
As part of a Unified Command that consisted of the USCG, NJDEP, PSE&G, Con Edison, and LeFrak (the property owner), Caldwell Marine was contracted by Con Edison & PSE&G to locate and repair a dielectric fluid leak in Jersey City, NJ. The leak was on a 345KV power line that spans from Jersey City, NJ through NYC to Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY. The line was located 10’ below the water surface and 15’ below the mudline on the Jersey City side where the work took place. To locate the leak Caldwell used commercial divers to excavate the mud to first locate the power line and eventually to find the leak. Once located, the leak was stopped by use of a manufactured clamp provided by Con Edison. The clamp was placed on the existing line, filled with grout and the excavated material was backfilled to match the original river bottom.

Location: Jersey City, NJ
Completion Date: 2018

Project Overview:
The Caldwell team installed a new submarine hybrid cable across Vineyard Sound from the Town of Falmouth on Cape Cod to the Town of Tisbury on Martha’s Vineyard. The installed hybrid cable is a single cable that contains 3 power conductors, each 1240kcmil Copper, and 2 fiber optic cables, each with 48 fiber strands, which now provides redundant communication and electric services. The method of cable installation also included horizontal directional drilling (HDD) at each landing to avoid potential impacts to coastal and nearshore wetland resource areas.

Location: Falmouth to Martha’s Vineyard, MA
Completion Date: 2014