Pioneer Consulting’s team provided project management and permitting support for the 147km CrossChannel Fibre submarine fiber optic cable project. Connecting Slough in the UK with Paris through the shortest route possible, this was the first subsea cable to cross the English Channel in two decades between England and France.
Scope
Pioneer was contracted to provide project management and oversee a number of scopes of Crosslake Fibre’s CrossChannel Fibre project. Through a disaggregated approach, Pioneer supported Crosslake in developing a project plan to construct the cable system without a turnkey provider, enabling greater schedule flexibility and a lower overall project cost. Utilizing this strategy, Pioneer worked closely with the Crosslake Fibre team to select the most appropriate vendors and establish a timeline for each specific component of the project, including route engineering, marine route surveying, subsea cable engineering, permitting, subsea construction system acceptance and project management.
This submarine telecommunications cable was the first to cross one of the world’s busiest shipping channels in nearly 20 years. The cable system allowed Crosslake Fibre to connect the London suburb of Slough, UK to Paris, France, with landings in Brighton and Hove, UK, and the French town of Veules les Roses in the Normandy region. Completed in December 2021, the project implementation spanned only 18 months.
Challenges
Apart from being one of the busiest shipping channels in the world, The English Channel (or French La Manche), or simply referred to as “The Channel,” is also a prolific scallop fishing area, it hosts several windfarms, it is a heavily dredged area for aggregates, there are numerous nature conservation areas designated for their seabed features, fish spawning grounds, the potential for pollutants in the sediments given the heavy industry presence, not to mention legacies of World War I and II in the form of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and over 200 shipwrecks to avoid. With just about every possible obstruction for a cable to route around, it was the role of Pioneer’s expert team to develop this route together.
Securing permits across multiple countries is always an arduous task but not to Pioneer’s permitting team who have many years of experience in acquiring permits for all sorts of complex marine developments. In the UK, a seabed lease is required from the Crown Estate, and environmental permits are issued by the Marine Management Organisation. In France, the environmental permit is issued by DREAL and a concession permit is coordinated by the regional DDTM.
In a nutshell, permitting, is making sure the authorities are satisfied there is no significant environmental, cultural or health and safety impacts during all stages of the project – from survey to installation and during operation which includes maintenance through to decommissioning. Adhering to stringent permitting standards across multiple jurisdictions, required detailed research to locate and identify the appropriate people to speak to, such as governing bodies and local fishery communities.
Another challenge of the project was ruling out UXO from prior wartime conflicts and debris from shipwrecks. It is becoming standard practice now for authorities to require some protocol for the discovery of unknown archaeological remains – so the scope of search is not just shipwrecks, but can also be small artifacts. Archaeology and UXO identification have similar survey equipment specifications and both required a magnetometer survey to be carried out. Furthermore, the historical burning of Brighton Pier in 2003 meant there were many ferrous anomalies at this landing, and a specific dive survey for UXO had to be undertaken to make the route safe for the installer. The good news was that all obstructions were avoided and disturbance to marine life and the seabed were kept to a minimum.
The COVID-19 pandemic also made it challenging to meet in-person and the necessary relationship building was restricted to email or phone calls. Several project milestones that are typically accomplished through in-person and on-site visits, such as detailed surveying and planning of beach landing sites, had to be coordinated via email and virtual phone calls, presenting its own set of challenges and opportunities.
If one contractor ran into challenges or delays, Pioneer and Crosslake Fibre had to rearrange other elements of the project to adapt to the changes.
Solutions
Since permitting rules varied between regions, Pioneer turned to its seasoned in-house team to obtain permits within the UK and to manage a permitting team in France, ensuring proper licensing and approvals according to each country’s requirements. To achieve this in a timely manner, the Pioneer team managed a Plan of Work and remained diligent and persisted with keeping the project on schedule. It is now really important, if not essential, to have a permitting specialist to interface with and keep on top of the agents and be one step ahead. Some of the environmental impact assessments are hundreds of pages in length, which the Project Manager does not have time to read, so having in-house expertise, where that is their day job, made the formula for success. A consortia-led set-up for example, can introduce contractual complexities and with that, many people in the mix, which combined, can lead to delays at both application (pre-application) and processing stage.
Pioneer used its deep technical and commercial experience to develop a detailed specification of all aspects of the survey before EGS was selected, a global specialist multidisciplinary marine survey provider. EGS identified the ideal cable route, ensuring the appropriate level of burial feasibility and cable protection and avoiding potential obstacles. When it came to installation, Pioneer also supported Crosslake in the procurement of the cable and selecting the installer, as well as hiring guard vessels and client reps to support the installation operations.
Because Pioneer was unable to perform in-person mapping at construction sites due to COVID-19 restrictions, an alternative planning method and coordination was critical. The Pioneer team worked with the Local Authority during online meetings to then tweak the final BMH position and agree on fencing boundaries and traffic management. From there, the team were able to create the statutory engineered drawings and renderings of the plans, producing the overall layout of the system for the permit application and building contractors.
Scope
Pioneer was contracted to provide project management and oversee a number of scopes of Crosslake Fibre’s CrossChannel Fibre project. Through a disaggregated approach, Pioneer supported Crosslake in developing a project plan to construct the cable system without a turnkey provider, enabling greater schedule flexibility and a lower overall project cost. Utilizing this strategy, Pioneer worked closely with the Crosslake Fibre team to select the most appropriate vendors and establish a timeline for each specific component of the project, including route engineering, marine route surveying, subsea cable engineering, permitting, subsea construction system acceptance and project management.
This submarine telecommunications cable was the first to cross one of the world’s busiest shipping channels in nearly 20 years. The cable system allowed Crosslake Fibre to connect the London suburb of Slough, UK to Paris, France, with landings in Brighton and Hove, UK, and the French town of Veules les Roses in the Normandy region. Completed in December 2021, the project implementation spanned only 18 months.
Results
Through a disaggregated approach, Pioneer worked closely with Crosslake, in a very dynamic project, to successfully complete the network implementation, playing a key role in realizing the project. Being adaptable and creative enabled Pioneer to work through commercial, regulatory, and technical challenges. By leveraging its nimble and committed team, both in the U.S. and Europe, Pioneer was able to exert greater influence over project scopes, increased flexibility and communication, and work quickly and efficiently to achieve success.
Completed and ready for service in December 2021, the 147 km CrossChannel Fibre submarine cable provides 96 fiber pairs for high-speed, low-latency connectivity to support the UK and France for decades to come.