National Grid announced on Tuesday, Nov. 30, that they would remove their equipment and cease operations on the cable reburying project until early spring 2022 when they hope to have more favorable weather and sea conditions.
The cable, which NGRID has named sea2shore, is the bi-directional electric transmission cable that was installed as part of the Block Island Wind Farm. It runs from the Block Island Power Company down Beach Avenue to Fred Benson Town Beach, and then on to the mainland. The cable also includes several strands of fiber optic cable that will be utilized for the island-wide broadband system when it is up and running.There is a second cable, called an export cable, that runs from the Block Island Wind Farm to a substation at BIPCo.The sea2shore cable has been plagued with problems since the beginning. It was supposed to be buried under the ocean floor at a depth of six feet, but quickly became exposed, especially in the area of the crowded town beach. There was a temporary solution of placing “mattresses” over the cable, and marking the area with buoys in the summer to protect it from boats.While it took a while – the
