Route Survey

The survey is used to confirm the route is suitable and to gather the detailed information which enables the final route engineering to be undertaken. Through our experience and expertise we provide survey solutions which are tailored to the requirements of the project, using the most advanced survey tools and equipment to determine the nature and topology of the seabed. This increasingly means using aerial drones and autonomous surface vessels which bring cost and technical advantages.

The marine survey typically uses geophysical survey tools such as echosounders, sonar, sub-bottom profilers, and magnetometers, combined with geotechnical sampling to provide a comprehensive set of data which is charted and incorporated into our cable routing GIS software.

The survey data is interpreted and used to complete burial assessments which help determine the best burial tools and cable protection measures for the system, combined with the knowledge gained from the desktop study on the likely sources and nature of risks to the cable.

Global Marine provide survey representatives to ensure the survey works meet the survey specification, to undertake in field routing decisions and engineering when required.

Recent Experience

• Completion of a cable route survey for a new cable in Scotland across the Pentland Firth. Our survey contractors used a UAV ‘drone’ and an Autonomous Surface Vessel (ASV). This innovative solution meant a diver swim survey was not needed and this reduced the HSE risk to the project and improved the resulting survey deliverables.
• Completion of the cable route survey and burial assessment for the BT Highlands and Islands project for 20 inter-island cables connecting the west coast and Orkney in Scotland. This project involved managing a survey campaign involving up to five survey vessels, conducting geophysical and geotechnical surveys in a challenging offshore environment.
• Cable route surveys and burial assessments for over 200km of inter-platform oil and gas connections. These surveys for our Tampnet projects in the North Sea are helping to ensure their cable systems are well designed secure and deliver reliable high bandwidth communications to major oil and gas operators.