Horizontal directional drilling cable shorelanding at San Nicolas Island, California

The U.S. Navy used unique construction and deployment methods to install new shorelanding cables at San Nicolas Island, California. The project involved repairing and upgrading an existing cable shorelanding using horizontal directional drilling. As part of the project, three 12-fiber SL21 single armor cables were pulled simultaneously into a 1.1 km (3740 feet) 15.2 cm (6 inch) diameter conduit. While pulling multiple cables into one conduit may be common with terrestrial applications, this process is unique for undersea cable applications, particularly for bores of this length. This paper summarizes the installation methods and environmental benefits of the project