First Major US Offshore Wind Staging Terminal: Planning, Engineering, and Construction

To serve the expanding offshore wind industry, a marshaling port is being developed at the New London State Pier facility. This port offers unrestricted open water access, proper channel depth, proximity to offshore wind generation sites, and will be the first US port to accommodate purpose-built wind turbine installation vessels. The existing, single berth facility consists of two piers of older vintage. Terminal operations require 30 acres of contiguous level land and two heavy lift berths. The site alterations include a 7-acre, 400,000 CY land fill between the two existing piers, demolition of the existing berth and installation of a pile supported heavy lift platform, installation of a second heavy lift platform at the uplands berth, and installation of full height and submerged bulkhead walls around the perimeter of the improvements. This paper describes the planning of the terminal and engineering and construction challenges faced in design.