17.02: Strengthening of oil platform with submerged cables: Strengthening of offshore oil production platform with prefabricated submerged cables

ABSTRACT Cable stays were used to strengthen an offshore oil production platform that had suffered structural damage. Six cables were installed (nos. 169 parallel strands in each cable) in an x‐bracing configuration between the platform legs. The use of cable stays for cable supported bridges, roofs and buildings has been increasing over the last 40 to 50 years and the technology is still being optimized. One of the main durability issues is related to corrosion of the high strength steel wires caused by water ingress into the cables. Obviously, deliberately submerging such cable stays into seawater present a number of very complex challenges, both from a technical and an installation point of view. This paper focuses only on some of the technical aspects to solve these challenges and presents some of the many innovative solutions that were developed during the detailed design.