Virginia Awards $223 Million Contract for Offshore Wind Port Project

The Virginia Port Authority has awarded a $223 million contract to rebuild the Portsmouth Marine Terminal for use an an offshore wind staging port.

The contract was awarded to Skanska USA, the U.S.-based unit of the Swedish multinational specializing in construction and development.

The project entails the redevelopment of approximately 72 acres of the 287-acre Portsmouth Marine Terminal located in Portsmouth, Virginia, which will improve 1,500 feet of an existing 3,540-foot wharf.

The terminal is set to serve as an offshore wind staging port for Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, which is the largest offshore wind project currently planned in the U.S.

Construction at the terminal is set to begin in July 2022, with completion is scheduled for 2025.

Dominion Energy is in the process of construction the first U.S.-built and Jones Act-compliant Wind Turbine Installation Vessel at Brownsville, Texas at the Keppel AmFELS’s shipyard, which will be used in the CVOW’s construction.

The contract award comes about a week after the State of Virginia approved the 2.6-gigawatt CVOW farm, consisting of 176 wind turbines to be constructed 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. The farm will be capable of generating enough energy to power up to 660,000 homes starting in 2026.

At the federal level, the project is under environmental review by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

Similar port redevelopment projects to support offshore wind project are also planned in New York at the historic South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, as well as in Salem and New Bedford in Massachusetts.

With regards to the Portsmouth Marine Terminal project, Skanska’s work will include:

• Constructing three heavy lift berths, the wind turbine generator delivery berth, the wind turbine generator load-out berth, and the berth for the steel tube monopiles
• Dredging a channel and access area to support a Mediterranean mooring configuration
• Strengthening the soils and surface in the upland areas to accommodate handling heavy surface loadings from crane, self-propelled modular transporters, wind turbine generator, and monopile and transition piece components
• Installing high mast lighting, stormwater collection systems, perimeter fencing, and other ancillary structures and systems