Vessel departs Port of Virginia with offshore wind monopiles [Video]

Dominion Spokesperson Jeremy Slayton said crews loaded the Orion heavy lift vessel with six monopile foundations before its departure to the construction zone, nearly 30 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.

“It is able to handle six monopile foundations per load,” Slayton explained in a previous 13News Now story. “Once it’s loaded, it will head out to the construction site [and] it will install those six monopiles over a period of days.”

The monopiles’ installation will take place between May 1 and October 31 this year, due to the migration season for the endangered North Atlantic right whales.

According to Ship Technology, the Orion has a heavy lift crane with a height of 295 feet and a 524-foot-long boom. The crane can lift loads of up to 5,000 tonnes to a …