Route Engineering

Both during and after the cable route survey, our team is able to utilise the data collected along with the information gained during the Desktop Study, to optimise the cable route and create key engineering documents which form the cable installation blueprint.

We create comprehensive route position lists (RPLs) and straight line diagrams (SLDs) which detail the position and all aspects of the cable route such as the cable plant (branching units, repeaters, joints, beach manholes), cable lengths, armour types, transitions, slack, water depths, cable and pipeline crossing points, and maritime boundaries.

The RPL and SLD provide the definitive cable and plant quantities for manufacture, system integration and installation.

We ensure the route is designed in harmony with the planned installation methodology and burial tools, making sure that when the cable is installed the offshore teams have a route and cable engineered to produce a quality result. Our knowledge of how to plan and engineer for the practical aspects of a shore end or a connection to an offshore platform, results in a better system for our customers.

OceanIQ’s route engineering team use the latest bespoke GIS software, both the internally developed GeoCable™ and the industry leading MakaiPlan software.

Recent Experience

• Gulf 2 Africa (G2A) connects Oman to via a 1,450km repeater system. Global Marine completed the route engineering the information gathered from the marine survey and our Desktop Study, to successfully install the cable connecting Salalah, Bosaso, and Berbera.
• Completion of all the route engineering for the BT Highlands and Islands project for 20 inter-island cables connecting the west coast and Orkney in Scotland. This project involved the engineering design for 40 shore ends and cable routing through some remote sites with challenging geological and tidal current conditions. Global Marine also managed the route survey and burial assessments for these 20 cable routes.
• Route engineering of the Uninett system in Svalbard, a two segment, 500km system connecting Longyearbyen to Ny-Ålesund in the Arctic Circle, the most northerly commercial cable system in the world. This project involved overcoming the specific engineering challenges posed by icebergs and shore based ice.
• Route Engineering for the Celtix Connect cable across the Irish Sea connecting Dublin to Anglesey in Wales.