Heerema Marine Contractors' concepts for the silent installation of offshore facilities' foundations have received a Statement of Feasibility from the global quality assurance firm DNV GL.

Heerema has been working on developing 'silent foundations' - pile foundations for offshore structures that can be installed without loud hammering. Hammering can be harmful to marine life and requires noise mitigation systems that produce a considerable CO2 footprint.

"The concepts being investigated are helical or screw piles and so-called push-in piles," Heerema explained.

Heerema said Thursday that DNVGL has now awarded a Statement of Feasibility to both concepts that are under development.

"Despite the challenges in 2020, this development could continue with the University of Dundee's support, who executed an extensive testing and modeling program," Heerema Marine Contractors said.

"As part of a technology qualification process, the results were extensively discussed with DNV-GL, and several workshops were conducted to review the foundation concepts and the development results," the Dutch firm added.

The Statements of Feasibility are the first formal step towards qualifying these technologies for actual use in offshore structures.

Videos/Homepage Photo Courtesy of Heerema Marine Contractors