Submarine Cable Installation Services

The core group of Caldwell Marine has the reputation it does due to our combined experience of over 120 years in the Marine Construction services industry, including submarine cable installation and repair. Our management experience and full spectrum of capabilities enable us to effectively complete our submarine cable installation projects using the most qualified personnel equipped with the latest array of specialized marine equipment.

Our on-staff resources, full time maintenance and fabrication team, and extensive inventory of state-of-the-art installation equipment allow us to start operations immediately and to complete submarine cable installation projects on time and on budget.  This is just part of the reason we have earned our reputation in the industry.

The Caldwell Marine philosophy of modular equipment design allows us to mobilize and perform anywhere a project is planned. Based in New Jersey, our performance in the fields of fiber cable and submarine power cable installation is recognized both nationally and internationally.

Project Overview:
NKT awarded CMI several marine phases of one of the largest infrastructure investments in the history of New York State.  CHPE capitalizes on CMI’s expertise of cable laying and Huxted Trenchless’ expertise of shore end drills.  The project will transport hydroelectricity to New York City from Quebec, Canada and will help power more than one million homes.

The concept for CHPE was shared by Transmission Developers Inc. – A Blackstone Portfolio Company with CMI over a decade ago and we are proud to see the dream become a reality.

Location:  Lake Champlain 

Completion Date: 2025

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 underground/ subsea 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:
The Caldwell team was contracted by Eversource Energy to install 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 underwater 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