Skanska completes offshore wind staging project at Port of Virginia

New York-based construction company Skanska announced Thursday that it has completed a $223 million redevelopment project for the Virginia Port Authority, upgrading 72 acres of Portsmouth Marine Terminal and 1,500 feet of wharf that now serves as an offshore wind staging port.

Richmond-based Dominion Energy will use the terminal staging port for its $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. According to Skanska, the terminal serves as a collection and storage site for wind turbine components, which are then transferred to installation vessels.

“We are proud to support the vital role of the Virginia Port Authority and Dominion’s work to build clean energy infrastructure, in this case enough wind energy to power 660,000 homes a year,” said Brook Brookshire, senior vice president of Skanska USA civil operations said in a statement. “This project strengthens vital port infrastructure while advancing sustainable energy production and benefiting local communities through job creation.”

Skanska began work on the project in 2022 and substantially completed it in March. The work involved constructing three heavy lift berths: the wind turbine generator delivery berth, the wind turbine generator load-out berth and the berth for the steel tube monopiles.

Other tasks completed included strengthening the soils and surface in the upland areas to accommodate heavy surface loadings and driving 1,335 150-foot-long piles and pouring 26,500 cubic yards of concrete. Skanska also installed high mast lighting, stormwater collection systems and other ancillary structures and systems.

Virginia Port Authority CEO and Executive Director Stephen Edwards said that Skanska delivered the project on time and on budget.

The CVOW calls for the construction of 176 wind turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach by 2026. Once the project is fully constructed, it will generate up to 9.5 million megawatt-hours per year of energy, enough to power up to 660,000 homes, according to Dominion.

Once Dominion Energy completes the CVOW project, which includes assembling and installing offshore turbines, they will generate 2.6 gigawatts of energy.

Skanska USA, the U.S. subsidiary of the Swedish parent company, is headquartered in New York City with 28 offices around the country and 6,500 employees. Globally, Skanska has 27,000 employees.