Following the official start of construction of the Nord Stream Pipeline last Friday in Russia, construction activities have now also begun in Germany. The first construction phase in the 82 kilometre long German sector of the Nord Stream Pipeline is the landfall at the Lubminer Heide energy centre. The onshore installation of a cofferdam is being started in the approximately five hectare large area directly adjacent to the field where WINGAS‘ receiving terminal is to be built. Dr. Georg Nowack, Nord Stream Project Manager for Germany, said: “We are starting construction today here in Lubmin, as planned. This is the best precondition for reaching the lofty goals we have set for the pipeline project.“

After the timely receipt at the end of last year of permits for the construction and operation of the Nord Stream Pipeline in German waters, all measures required to prepare for building have now been completed. The construction field, which is roughly 450 metres long and up to 150 metres wide, has been cleared, levelled, secured and fenced in. The first construction materials have already been delivered by ship. Special machines are beginning to erect the cofferdam on the landside, which begins approximately 150 metres inland from the coast. A parallel pair of Steel sheet pile walls will be driven into the ground, 9.5 metre apart. Onshore construction will continue until mid-May followed by the construction of another 550 metres of the cofferdam in the Bay of Greifswald. After the installation, the seabed between the pilings will be excavated. On completion of the trench excavation, two pipeline strings will be pulled ashore in succession and laid next to each other in the trenches that were created. To finish this phase, the trenches will be filled in and the pipelines buried.

Nord Stream AG, as the contracting party, will be present on-site with a management team to supervise construction measures. The Italian company Saipem, as the main contractor, has been commissioned to carry out the construction. Saipem, which itself specialises in pipe laying, has in turn hired the experienced construction companies Boskalis (Netherlands) and Rohde-Nielsen (Denmark) as subcontractors, tasked with trenching activities and building the trenches. The implementation of the construction measures are orientated on the high ecological standards that apply to all aspects of the Nord Stream project.