When your work involves planting 90-meter steel giants into the ocean floor with millimeter-level accuracy, precision isn’t a luxury, it’s the mission. For Dutch marine contractor Van Oord, one of the world’s leaders in dredging, offshore energy, and marine construction, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible at sea is simply business as usual.
Whether building wind farms off the German coast or restoring shorelines along the Black Sea, Van Oord’s operations hinge on positioning accuracy. Trimble Applanix examines how the company’s advanced GNSS technology is supporting Van Oord in some of the world’s most demanding marine environments in the case study: Navigating Precision Waters: Van Oord’s Maritime Innovation with Trimble Technology,
CenterPoint® RTX Marine Service
Offshore wind is booming, with capacity expected to surge from 57 GW in 2021 to over 316 GW by 2030. Van Oord is on the frontlines of this transformation. For a wind project off the coast of Germany, the company used Trimble’s CenterPoint® RTX Marine service to place monopile foundations with accuracy to within a tenth of a degree, without relying on land-based reference stations.
“We have to make sure the monopiles are vertical before people start jacking into the seabed,” said Wim Balvert, Survey Operations Manager at Van Oord. “CenterPoint RTX is the best [real-time correction] currently available because the vertical is so accurate.”
Beyond wind, Van Oord’s vessels, including the Stingray pipelay barge and the flexible fallpipe vessel Stornes, are outfitted with a blend of Trimble GNSS receivers, inertial motion sensors, and proprietary 3D visualization systems. These technologies help keep operations on course – literally.
MPS566 Marine Positioning System
For sites plagued by interference, like those along Romania’s Black Sea coast, Van Oord is turning to Trimble’s next-gen MPS566 GNSS receiver. With advanced anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities, it’s a powerful tool in the fight against positioning uncertainty.
These are just some of the ways Trimble is supporting Van Oord and are redefining maritime engineering. Read the full case study here to learn more.
