Monitoring mountains and the marine environment
Cautus Geo is carrying out extensive monitoring of ground conditions on land and the marine environment as part of the Northern Lights expansion project in Øygarden.
Problem statement
Northern Lights in Øygarden, north of Bergen, is situated in an area with challenging mountainous terrain. Blasting will take place on land and at sea to ensure the expansion of capacity. Within 1,000 metres of the new quay to be built, there is a fish farm in the sea. Operations there will continue unaffected during and after the construction work.
Solution
Cautus Geo has established comprehensive automatic and continuous monitoring of the seabed and the marine environment. Alarm thresholds have been set. If these thresholds are exceeded, an alarm is triggered automatically. This is about ensuring the safety of the work being carried out, providing geotechnical support for the new quay, and safeguarding a healthy environment for the offshore fish farm.
Northern Lights is a carbon capture and storage facility. The plant has been in operation since 2025. It is now set to undergo a major expansion. Its capacity is to be increased from 1.5 million cubic metres to at least five million cubic metres.
Skanska has been a key contractor in the construction of the facility since work began in 2020. Between 2025 and 2027, the company will, amongst other things, build a new quay and mooring facilities for 200-metre-long ships.
The work involves, amongst other things, blasting 10,000 cubic metres on land and 5,000 cubic metres at sea, and anchoring the new quay structure to a challenging rock face.
The construction project presents geotechnical challenges. Once the soil has been excavated, a slab with a 60-metre quay frontage is to be constructed.
Cautus Geo has set up a comprehensive system to monitor stability, cracks, noise, fastenings and the potential dispersal of particles into the sea.
Customer
Skanska
Year
2025 – 2028
Location
Øygarden
Application area
Technology
The Cautus Geo all-in-one package is excellent, with a user-friendly web portal. It brings together real-time monitoring data. This is beneficial for us and for the client. It provides the reliable, up-to-date information and documentation we need.
Project Manager Roy Gunnar Bergland at Skanska
Contact person
Switchboard telephone +47 990 96 580 or e-mail salg@cautusgeo.com
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