Underground & Submarine Cables
Electrical cables, whether underground or underwater, serve as vital links for increasingly diversified power portfolios and in complex, challenging environments. Load growth in urban areas demands creative construction solutions for electrical distribution, while the boom in offshore wind is placing a premium on submarine transmission cables. We bring the broadly diversified experience and technological knowledge to optimize your cable installation.
Why Electrical Cables Matter
Intensified reliability and resiliency requirements, as well as burgeoning renewable energy sources in need of interconnection, are driving substantial investments in new and upgraded electrical infrastructure. Putting transmission and distribution lines underground offers substantial resiliency benefits while reducing visual clutter in the urban environments demanding more power.
Accelerated offshore wind development depends on submarine cables for exporting power to shore. Combined with the rise of submarine cable integration for grid interconnections, submarine cables have emerged as a vital option to meet the demands of load growth and grid resilience. This can include high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables for long-haul connections with less loss between offshore installations and the onshore grid.
Implementing cables can involve numerous custom assets, including duct banks, splice vaults, riser structures, cable systems and interconnections. For distribution, it can also involve secondary networks, renewable collector systems, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and facility relocations. Few contractors provide the breadth of experience across all these assets that we can.
The Burns & McDonnell Advantage
We provide comprehensive planning, design and construction support for implementing all configurations of electrical cables for transmission and distribution. We provide routing and feasibility studies, cable system design and studies, cost estimating, corrosion services, factory and supplier inspections, field inspections, subsurface engineering, environmental permitting, construction management and public involvement support.
Although going underground often involves open cut trenching, there are several methods that can be used for trenchless installation. Trenchless solutions can be a viable option in many contexts. We are a leader in designing and constructing using these techniques, including horizontal directional drilling (HDD), auger boring (jack and bore), and microtunneling. We help identify and mitigate the risks commonly associated with these techniques.
