A month after its 300-foot long blade folded over and scattered debris across the region, Vineyard Wind this week resumed building turbines off the Island’s southern coast. 

Saying it had permission from the federal government, the offshore wind energy developer announced in a statement that a barge would leave New Bedford Tuesday morning carrying several towers and one nacelle out to the construction site for installation while cleanup efforts continue. 

The work is some of the first major construction being done since the blade malfunction on July 13. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement had allowed Vineyard Wind to do some cable laying work while the agency investigated the cause of the broken blade, but turbine construction was previously prohibited. 

Though three blades would also be on the barge headed out to the wind farm, which starts about 14 miles south of the Vineyard, Vineyard Wind still cannot install any blades while an investigation into a potential manufacturing defect continues, the company said. The blades aboard the barge were there to be used as a counterweight for the towers, according to Vineyard Wind, and would go back to New Bedford later this week. 

Power production is also not allowed at this time. 

Vineyard Wind’s CEO Klaus Moeller praised the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s new suspension order that allowed the new work.

“The updated order issued by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement reflects the unity of effort, extensive planning, independent third-party validation, and relentless focus on safety that went into developing our action plan to secure the remainder of the damaged blade and get this critical project back on track,” he said. “As we take these important steps to resume installation activities, starting with towers and nacelles during GE Vernova’s ongoing blade inspection process, the safety of personnel and the environment remains our highest priority.”

GE Vernova, the blade’s manufacturer, said it remains focused on removing parts of the broken turbine blade that have continued to litter the ocean. The company has begun cutting away the pieces of the blade that remain on the turbine 

Cutting began Sunday and continued into Monday. Crews removed a substantial amount of the damaged blade that posed a risk of adding more debris to the water, according to Vineyard Wind. 

Plans are still being finalized to do more cutting, remove the blade parts that have fallen onto a platform on the turbine and to address the piece of blade that sunk to the seafloor. 

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said Vineyard Wind had satisfied requirements for a safety and risk assessment to resume installation of towers and nacelles.

A 500-meter safety zone remains around the broken turbine, and Nantucket officials on Monday said that the recent cutting could result in more debris washing up on its beaches. 

Before it was shut down for the investigation, Vineyard Wind was the largest offshore wind farm in the country, and it still plans to build 62 turbines in the area south of the Vineyard to supply electricity to New England. 

This is the first blade failure on the outer continental shelf investigated by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, according to the agency, and there is no timetable for its investigation to be wrapped up.