Global Marine has completed the initial subsea fibre-optic cable route survey scope for the Scottish Government’s Reaching 100% Programme (R100), being delivered by Openreach on behalf of BT.
The project covers inter-island connections between Orkney, Shetland, and the Inner Hebrides as well as two connections back to the Scottish mainland.
The Scottish Government-funded R100 project aspires to extend superfast broadband capabilities at speeds of at least 30Mbps to every premises in Scotland.
Utilising the subsea knowledge of its sister company OceanIQ, also part of the Global Marine Group, and specialist service provider Fugro, the cable route surveys are now complete, ahead of the 16-route cable lay. The fibre optic cable installation is scheduled to commence early in 2022 and will be delivered by Global Marine’s multi-purpose vessel, Normand Clipper.
Three survey vessels were mobilised on the project to complete specific scopes of geophysical and geotechnical survey work along the different cable routes. The scope of work also included an Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) assessment.
By Jake Frith
