7th October 2026 in Construction updates
VolkerFitzpatrick Ltd have been awarded an early involvement contract for the civils works on the Sheringham Shoal and Dudgeon Extensions project relating to the onshore export cable.
The contract includes engineering services and surveys in the near term, with the contract for cable installation to be progressed at a later stage once a future construction date is confirmed. Surveys will commence along the cable route in Q3/4 2026 and continue into 2027.
Early collaboration with VolkerFitzpatrick will draw on local experience, apply lessons learned, and help minimise disruption during future construction. Announcements regarding local supply chain engagement will be made at a later stage as details become available.
19th December 2025 in Construction updates
Trial trenching archaeology work commenced at a small number of locations along the onshore cable corridor route during the summer, serving as a pre-cursor to a much more intense programme of activity scheduled for 2026.
Trial trenching is a rapid form of investigation and evaluation used to estimate the archaeological potential of a site; it involves digging trenches at intervals across the chosen site, which is usually agricultural land, whilst leaving the rest of the site untouched,
Based on the evaluation of the trial trenching, Norfolk County Council Historic Environmental Service will decide whether further investigative archaeological work will need to be undertaken at a later date.
19th July 2025 in Construction updates
Good weather through the spring and early summer has enabled the metal detecting and geophysical survey stages of the archaeological investigations along the onshore cable corridor to be completed.
Analysis of the geophysical surveys, which enable the archaeologists to ‘see beneath the soil’ without disturbing the ground, have identified that further investigations involving trial trenching activities will need to be undertaken at various locations along the 42 mile route of the onshore cable corridor across the Norfolk countryside.
These trial trenching activities will commence shortly and will continue into 2026, although work will be curtailed during the winter when the ground is likely to be unsuitable for such work.
19th November 2024 in Construction updates
Since the grant of the Development Consent Order (DCO) earlier this year, work has been ongoing to discharge a number of the many onshore and offshore planning conditions which came with the Consent order.
Onshore, the first phase of archaeological surveys has been undertaken by Headland Archaeology at various locations along the onshore cable corridor from Weybourne on the North Norfolk coast to Swardeston, south of Norwich. These have included geophysical surveys, metal detecting and trial trenching.
Two further phases of archaeological surveys will take place during 2025 and 2026.
22nd April 2024 in Construction updates
On 17 April 2024, the UK Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero granted development consent for SEP and DEP.
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