Smulders

Smulders Projects carried out secondary steel fabrication activities for the Eneco Luchterduinen offshore wind farm’s monopile foundations. Eneco described that, following manufacture of the foundation piles by Sif Group, Smulders Projects in Antwerp would weld the mounting structures onto the piles, supporting the project’s integrated foundation pile concept that eliminated a separate transition piece. The mounting structures included attachment and support features for ancillary components that would be installed offshore after pile driving, such as access ladders, platforms and boat landings. Eneco reported that Smulders Projects performed installation and testing of the top part of a foundation pile to validate the offshore mounting methodology, ahead of repeating the process across all 43 foundations during the construction campaign. Smulders Projects’ role therefore related to fabrication and integration of foundation secondary steel and outfitting interfaces on the monopile piles prior to offshore installation. This work supported the project’s goal of reducing offshore installation time and cost while maintaining safe and repeatable offshore assembly procedures for each turbine foundation location.