ABB Caithness-Moray-Shetland HVDC Connection Survey Project

Contracted by MMT AB to provide specialist multibeam personnel onboard the MV Franklin for the ABB Caithness-Moray-Shetland HVDC Connection Survey project. ABB AB High Voltage Cables will install a HVDC cable between Noss (Caithness) and Portgordon (Moray). The objective of the 113km pre-lay and UXO survey is to ensure that the route is clear from any obstructions that may affect or interfere with cable laying operations. A hull-mounted Kongsberg EM2040 system is used for bathymetric mapping of the survey corridor, supplemented with a towed sidescan sonar. In addition, a sub-bottom profiler is utilised to map the shallow geology, with ferrous objects detected using a transverse gradiometer.  Kongsberg SIS is being utilised for multibeam data acquisition, with post-processing performed using Caris HIPS and EIVA NaviModel.