GZA has completed a suite of geotechnical, marine and coastal consulting services in support of Crowley’s Salem Offshore Wind Terminal.
Design and permitting are now under way, with a goal of breaking ground in next year’s first quarter. The construction time table will be developed over the coming months and is anticipated to take 24 to 30 months.
The terminal, on the 42-acre site of a former coal- and oil-fired power plant on Salem Harbor in Massachusetts, will provide heavy-lift deployment and logistics services for offshore wind operations, including staging and partial assembly of offshore turbine components, berthing and moorage of turbine installment vessels for loadout operations as well as heavy transportation vessels for inbound deliveries.
Working as a subcontractor to AECOM, the lead design consultant, GZA managed and executed a phased approach for geotechnical site investigations consisting of land borings, water borings, cone penetrometer test soundings, test pits and geophysical surveying and mapping. GZA worked with several local laboratories to complete an extensive soil and rock laboratory testing program and produce a subsurface profile and geotechnical data report.
GZA also provided marine and coastal consulting services to AECOM during the design phase, including regulatory compliance review for coastal resilience design, metocean analyses and development of wave and flood loading models that were used to design the new waterfront infrastructure.
“GZA has had decades of experience working at the Salem Harbor site, including performing geotechnical and related engineering services for the replacement of the coal power plant with a cleaner-running natural gas generating station,” says GZA president and CEO Patrick Sheehan.
“GZA’s proud and honored to have completed our scope of services for the next transformation of the site as a Crowley Wind Services terminal that will play a critical role in support of the development of clean, renewable offshore wind for New England, and add to our broad portfolio of offshore wind projects in New England and beyond.”
