The developer of US first offshore wind farm, Deepwater Wind, is making some safety changes after an independent consultant has identified several health and safety issues.
ABS Group, a Houston-based firm listed several concerns during the construction of five foundations at the 30MW Block Island offshore wind farm.
In the report for Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, ABS highlighted near misses including dropped objects, personnel working under suspended loads, personnel transfers, rescue skiff reliability and loss of control of suspended load as some of the safety issues.
ABS also named the limited offshore experience among employees with Deepwater’s contractors at New Jersey-based Weeks Marine and Seattle-based Manson Construction.
“We agreed with those recommendations, and our offshore contractor is implementing them,” said Deepwater Wind in a statement. “For example, the contractor will dedicate more full-time, dedicated safety personnel to all work shifts.”
The foundations installation started in late July. Soon after, one of the foundations was damaged due to collision with a construction barge, after which it was removed and shipped to New Jersey for repair.
Deepwater Wind is confident that despite these setbacks, the project is on schedule to go into operation in the fall of 2016.
OffshoreWIND staff: Image: Deepwater Wind