Cable project makes waves off North Shore, Cape Ann

Sep 19, 2023

The 459-foot cable layer Decisive could be seen Tuesday off Marblehead as it made its way off from Nahant Bay in Lynn toward Cape Ann.

The Decisive was on a voyage that will take it to the waters off Gloucester and Rockport as it lays the last leg of a subsea fiber optic information superhighway between the United States, the United Kingdom and France.

The consortium for the telecommunications cable is made up of several partners in addition to Meta (formerly the Facebook company). It's called the Amitié Submarine Fiber Optic Cable Project, according to the project website and information provided by Meta.

The project involves the installation of subsea fiber optic cable system, made up of a 1.5-inch fiber optic cable (about the size of a garden hose) across the Atlantic linking the United States and Europe.

The cable will pass through Massachusetts state waters via underwater and underground ducts, and be connected to land at the Nahant Rotary in Lynn. Only a new underground utility duct will be present at the rotary, but otherwise the cable will not be visible.

The cable will cross the waters of Rockport, Gloucester, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Beverly, Salem, Marblehead, Swampscott and Lynn. The Decisive could be seen by those in Lynn and Nahant this past weekend when the cable was pulled ashore. The Decisive is expected to pass by Rockport and Gloucester by Thursday or Friday, according to Meta.

It's expected the cable installation will be completed over the next few months with the project wrapping up this summer.

"The new system will increase telecommunications reliability and diversity between the continents, and increase data transmission capacity and speeds, helping to satisfy the growing demand for transmission capacity in Europe and the United States," according to the project's website.

According to this website, the Decisive will use a specialized plow to lay and bury the cable four to six feet below the seabed in a trench less than a foot wide.

The length of cable being installed between the Exclusive Economic Zone (in which the U.S. has jurisdiction over natural resources, according to NOAA) and the manhole at the Lynn rotary is 214 miles, of which 33.7 miles is Massachusetts state waters, with additional length on shore.

The project also included the horizontal directional drilling and installation of a new metal pipe conduit under the road, beach and area near the Lynn shore extending nearly a mile offshore from the center of the rotary.

The project description adds that most of the installation of the marine portion of the cable "will be achieved using a purpose-built cable ship fully equipped with all the necessary equipment, tools, and facilities to safely handle and install, joint, test, and power the submerged equipment, including simultaneous cable lay and plow burial."

The website says the cable installation in the ocean floor will mean a narrow width of ground disturbance. The Decisive is equipped with a plow that creates a channel less than one-foot wide where the cable is buried under the seabed.

Before the cable was installed, the route was cleared of debris such as abandoned fishing nets, wire rope and out-of-service cables. That work was done by the 280-foot-long Atlantic Merlin last week as it performed "route clearance activities" and/or a "pre-lay grapnel run."

Commercial fishing vessels have also been chartered as scout boats to run the route in advance of operations to check for fishing gear and notify owners, according to a PowerPoint presentation about the project by Acatel Submarine Networks.

Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714,or at [email protected].

Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714,or at [email protected].

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