DUDGEON

There were a number of different onshore and offshore surveys, relating to both construction and environmental issues, which needed to be completed before construction of the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm could commence.

Onshore: initial ‘walkover’ surveys along the cable corridor in North Norfolk and Breckland commenced during Spring 2013, and these included Great Crested Newts and other protected species, as well as the mapping of trees, hedges, public rights of way, point of access and other topographical features.
Stage 1 archaeological surveys resulted in some trial trenching works being undertaken in late 2014 to ensure that there were no surprise archaeological finds during construction.

Stage 1 archaeological surveys have also been undertaken, as a result of which some trial trenching works were undertaken after the 2014 harvest was completed with the aim of ensuring that there are no surprise archaeological finds during construction.

Offshore: surveys are part of the wind farm construction planning process, and during 2013 these included geophysical surveys of the wind farm site, as well as a subsea and seabed survey along the offshore cable route to its landfall at Weybourne Hope on the North Norfolk coast.

During early 2014 a core penetration test and a borehole survey within the main wind farm site were undertaken; these were followed by catch sampling surveys during the summer months, both along the export cable corridor and within the wind farm site.