Virginia Coastal Wind Landfall and Trenchless Traverse
Virginia Beach, Va.
Energy/Industrial
Sent by: Michels Corp.
Region: ENR Mid Atlantic
Owner: Dominion Energy Virginia
General contractor: Wilson Construction Co.
Subcontractors: Behrens & Associates; JD Hair & Associates; Haley & Aldrich Inc.; Herrenknecht; In-Terra Innovations; Michels Construction Inc.; Michels Pipeline Inc.; Michels Trenchless Inc.
In all of its construction stages to date, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project has been a unique undertaking, with significant design and construction innovation used to build 176 wind turbines and three substations 27 miles off the state’s coast, as well as other power connection systems in an environmentally sensitive marine area. With 2.6 GW of net power capacity, they are projected to be the largest power generation array in the United States.
Contractor Michels used their proprietary underground cable installation system to avoid drilling deeper into the sensitive marine site, seen here and in the photos below.Photo courtesy of Michels Corp.
Linking your offshore generation with onshore transmission is a particularly critical, complex and scrutinized component. To build trenchless crossings for electrical conduits at landing sites to accommodate offshore power cables through the area, the team used Michels Corp.’s patented Direct Pipe system. It allowed installations from the beach to the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean without the need for deeper horizontal directional drilling to avoid drilling fluid leaks and risks to the cable’s power ampacity. The team says the ten Direct Pipe installations are the most completed at one time on a project globally.
Photo courtesy of Michels Corp.
The location of the project in a military reserve required the evacuation of equipment and personnel for a month in five-month intervals. “The project team was able to complete the project on time by planning work around these stoppages,” the filing says, despite the limited availability of specialist vessel time to install cables within the conduits and other measures needed to compensate for a higher-than-expected water table and the treatment required following the unexpected discovery of PFAS contaminants.
Photo courtesy of Michels Corp.
“A new industry standard was set by running three rigs and Direct Pipe crews simultaneously 24 hours a day to meet the schedule,” the team says. The project also established strict qualification criteria for key skilled workers such as steel pipe welders and [high-density polyethylene] pipe melters and used non-destructive testing.
Despite supply chain pressures, tariffs and a one-month federal construction hiatus in late 2025 and early 2026 that pushed CVOW’s cost to $11.5 billion, owner Dominion Energy said Feb. 23 that the project is nearly 75 percent complete and is expected to generate its first power this month, which could eventually power up to 6,600.
“Offshore wind is critical to our diverse and comprehensive generation mix to keep the lights on for our customers with affordable, reliable and increasingly clean energy,” CEO Robert Blue said in a social media post.
