Gas 2025 Project
Throughout the summer of 2000, the Land and Marine Survey Group had a heavy involvement with the Gas 2025 Project let by Bord Gais and supervised by consultants J.P. Kenny Ltd. The project will ultimately lead to the installation of a gas pipeline across the Irish Sea and the supply is intended to meet the Republic of Irelands’ natural gas needs until 2025.
The Survey Groups’ initial involvement was with the nearshore marine survey. The survey involved the use of our standard suite of sensors (echo sounder, side scan sonar, Uniboom seismic reflection system and magnetometer) along with a Swathe Bathymetry System and Digital Sonar Acquisition and Processing system.
Swathe bathymetry is the latest development in the marine survey industry and allows collection of seabed level information not just below the sensor, but to either side of the vessel track. The system averaged approximately 1000 soundings per 2 metre square block of seabed surveyed, which meant that over 20 Gigabytes of data were collected for the whole job, nearly 3 times the network capacity at the Chester office!
Three sites were surveyed; Ross Bay near Kirkcudbright in Scotland, Gormanston to the north of Dublin in Ireland and a last minute detour was requested to a site just north of Peel on the Isle of Man for a proposed feeder. This proved popular with the survey team as it was TT week, though a sustained period of good weather meant that long hours were spent at sea and accommodation was extremely difficult to find.
The Groups’ participation with the project did not end with the marine survey following award of the landfall surveys. This involved a comprehensive desk study, extensive topographic, geophysical and radiological surveys and a subsequent geotechnical investigation. These were tied into the national mapping systems using GPS techniques and control points obtained from the relevant authorities.
With the assistance of Nicholson and Geotech Specialist who provided the drilling crews, our laboratories at Chester, Doncaster, Leamington Spa and TES Bretby, seismic risk analysis by CLA Warrington and geotechnical reporting by Dick Gosling of CLA Warrington, this project was completed on time and within budget.
The Survey Group would like to extend their thanks to all who assisted. |
