UK based company Quintham, with a solid track record of international guard protection, has developed a dynamic guarding framework which is proving to be a game changer in solving the complex risks of a cable guarding project on the Hudson River, USA.

Quintham was contracted to mitigate a diverse range of risks and manage the task of providing guarding and preventative awareness work for a complex cable guarding project in the United States. The project involves protecting the cable while laying of a 110km cable in the busy Hudson River. In contrast with traditional guard boat operations, this project has the requirement to reduce the risk of the exposed cable suffering damage without using safety/guard vessels.

Quintham applied its dynamic guarding framework, which was extensively developed during operations in the United States. By reducing the total number of vessels required, Quintham improved the quality of protection and delivered a new level of analysis and historical data reporting for clients.

Quintham developed an innovative proposal for their client using their established software and hardware solutions to create land-based guarding in partnership with the local service provider Sea Services North America.

Robert Greenwood, Technical Director of Quintham said: “At short notice, we delivered a first-of-kind solution while delivering significant de-risking of the project through awareness raising and providing a strong deterrent effect. This delivered significant cost savings compared to a vessel-only based solution and with minimal carbon emissions.”

The innovative solution relies on Quintham’s guarding framework of integrated software and services. By providing an overview of the exposed sections online, river users could easily identify sections of exposed cable on the online map. They could download for immediate display on their navigation system, including the buffered safety zones.

Each section of the river with exposed cable is guarded by a team of competent mariners, who call and alert vessels to the necessary safety information for navigating the area and log real time AIS movements and radio communications. With over 60 miles (96 km) of cable laid and multiple guard areas along this route being operated by Quintham, the staff and client benefit from a 24-hour support team, who assist in coordination and health and safety monitoring and provide phone, email and WhatsApp-based support to mariners’ queries.

Throughout the project, the teams and clients use the Quintham Hub to manage the collated data, and this is available as a live overview map with real-time and historical playback. This allows the team to manage risk dynamically and follow up instantly with vessels that raise concerns.

As the complexity of guarding requirements increases and the need to reduce carbon emissions and costs increases, Quintham has demonstrated that it can significantly improve quality, consistency and efficiency.