Ocean Builders has big plans for the future. As the dedicated supporters of our journey, you know that we’ve come a long way since our start.
The next giant step toward expanding human settlements beyond land itself? The SeaPod Alpha Deep! This marks the second prototype’s deployment in Linton Bay, following last year’s introduction of the SeaPod Eco.
SeaPods in themselves are marvels of engineering that require significant logistics to be transported. Telehandlers, travel lifts, boats, lots of manpower and, introducing our new barge! With a 30 metre steel structure, an underwater room, and a ballast chamber weighing more than 70 tons, the logistics are quite unique!
The next step involves the transportation of the Eco pod from the factory to its designated deployment site.
We recently brought to our Panama factory a 41 metre barge that we purchased in Columbia. It can be pushed or pulled depending on whether the need requires at the time.
The new Eco Pod will be transported toward the loading dock using the marina’s travel lift and placed onto the barge. Here it will be secured for its journey to its deployment site out to the nort-west corner of Linton Island.
In the previous year, we relocated our inaugural Eco pod to Linton Bay Marina, where it currently rests at a depth of around 8 metres. Fast forward a year, and we’re faced with the challenging task of shifting this roughly 15-ton structure a distance of 3.7 kilometres into the open ocean. Once we reach a depth of 30 metres, the team will undertake the intricate operation of unloading the pod from the barge and securely affixing it to the spar.
To reach the intended depth for the Eco Pod’s placement on top, we’ve already relocated the spar to the water, where preparations for the ballast are in progress. Eventually, the underwater room will be submerged to a depth of approximately 8 metres below the water’s surface.
It will be a feat of logistics for everything to happen smoothly, but we are confident that everything will go according to plan.
The barge will be used for many applications, including potentially transporting SeaPods through the Panama canal. Having this marvel of a worldwide transportation system will allow for further deployment sites to be opened up. We are blessed and excited to have it.
