3578 Steel fabrication in the offshore wind industry - A good practice guidance for developers

Overview:

This document presents a set of formal, practical, and relevant good practice guidelines aimed at project developers, to address the major challenges in health and safety (H&S) during steel fabrication for offshore wind.

The objective is to create a common set of guidelines to improve H&S in the industry and reduce the unfortunate rise in fatalities at the time of writing this document.

For clarity, the scope of this study covers:

• Fabrication, which begins from receipt of steel and considers all welding activities up to the inspection and acceptance of welds.
• Preparation of steel for coating (e.g. water jetting, blasting and coating).
• Mechanical completion (e.g. assembly and installation of internal platforms, internal ladders and fixings (excludes electrical)).
• Loadout, which includes upending of components and may include loading onto the transportation vessel and preparing sea fastenings.

It is recognised that many of the hazards identified within the document may be applicable to other scopes, and this guidance will be updated to cover other types of fabrication in future revisions. Fabrication of floating wind foundations may also bring other risks which have not been identified within the scope of the current document.