EirGrid is the Transmission System Operator (TSO) in Ireland and Réseau de Transport d'Électricité (RTE) is the French TSO.
RTE and EirGrid, together referred to herein as ‘the Companies’, have been engaged in exploring the feasibility of an Interconnector project between Ireland and France, known as the ‘Celtic Interconnector’.
The objective of this Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) process is to produce a short-list of suitably qualified companies who will be invited to tender for the provision of marine survey services as required by the Companies.
The PQQ document provides a description of the requirements and services the Companies wish to procure. It also provides information about the selection procedure.
Candidates are invited to submit a qualification application for inclusion on the tender list in accordance with this document.
The marine surveys carried out in the Feasibility Phase confirmed that a feasible route existed between Ireland and France, albeit with several areas of challenging geology. Based on an in depth analysis of the findings of the marine survey and in conjunction with recently available third party data that has become available, the project team have identified several opportunities to carry out route development to further refine the route and potentially avoid some of the areas of challenging geology.
Therefore, there is now a requirement to procure a marine survey contractor to carry out additional high-quality nearshore geophysical, geotechnical and benthic marine surveys at additional nearshore areas on the French and Irish coasts, along with associated reporting. The approximate length of the additional nearshores and offshore legs would be in the order of 35km & 25km respectively for the 2 areas in the Irish section and 25 km for the area in the French section and based on a 500 m wide corridor coverage width.
The survey will comprise of the following activities:
— Nearshore and Offshore Geophysical Surveys (2017).
This will consist of a survey using some or all of the following geophysical sensors — side scan sonar, multi-beam bathymetry, reflection seismics and magnetometer and may include integration of existing marine survey data. This survey will be carried out in 3 areas (2 on the south coast of Ireland and 1 on the north west coast of France). This survey and its results will form the basis from which the geotechnical and benthic survey will be carried out.
— Nearshore and Offshore Geotechnical Sampling and Laboratory Tests.
Upon completion of the geophysical cable routing survey, a sampling programme consisting of vibrocores (or optionally, of rock-cores, if need be), cone penetrometer testing and shore based ground investigations across the inter-tidal areas of the 3several potential landfalls will be undertaken. The final scope of the geotechnical work will be based upon a preliminary interpretation of the geophysical data and will be subject to RTE and EirGrid approval. The recovered geotechnical samples will require to have a series of laboratory tests undertaken that will be determined according to site conditions.
— Benthic Survey.
Upon completion of the geophysical cable routing survey, a benthic survey will be planned across the optimised cable route and may be carried out at the same time as the geotechnical survey. This survey will look to identify sensitive benthic habitats in accordance with national and EU level marine conservation objectives.
EirGrid will lead the procurement process for this piece of work on behalf of EirGrid and RTE. The contract will be awarded on a tripartite basis with split 50:50 invoicing.
See the Information Memorandum and Pre-Qualification Questionnaire for full details. This is attached to the etenders notice for this tender at http://www.etenders.gov.ie/