Vessel Of Opportunity “VOOP”

eTrac travels nationally and internationally for our clients & jobs. Since our field of work occasionally needs a vessel, we regularly work with “Vessels of Opportunity”, or “VOOPs” for short. VOOPs are vessels local to the jobsite where we can mobilize our equipment and use for the duration of the project. For one of our recent jobs in Freeport, TX, we utilized a local pontoon boat to survey a river! #eTrac #survey #hydrography

Glen Canyon Dam 3D Model

This past summer, eTrac teamed up with Autodesk and R2Sonic to collect data using LiDAR, photogrammetry, and sonar technology to create a 3D model of the Glen Canyon Dam and the power plant facility. This model will be used for design, operation and management, asset management, monitoring, security, and public outreach and education. In addition, the model will give U.S. Bureau of Reclamation personnel a better overall understanding of the facility and its interrelated systems.

For more details, and to see an example of the model created by Autodesk, click here.


Remote Surveys at Glen Canyon Dam

eTrac has designed and built a new remotely controlled survey craft: S/V ROVer! This compact, versatile, and highly transportable Remote Operated Vessel is indeed a surveyor’s best friend. Following its first survey at the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor Hawaii in late August, it was successfully deployed for a high resolution mapping effort at the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona.


Searching for Hidden Treasures

Recently, eTrac teamed up with the National Park Service to perform surveys around Torpedo Wharf in the San Francisco Bay in preparation for restoration efforts on the horizon. The team will perform several surveys using a variety of equipment to help provide the fullest picture of what artifacts may lay underneath the surface.

Remnants from old piers, military munitions, or even shipwrecks such as the S.S. City of Chester which sank after a collision in the bay on August 24, 1888 are some of the items expected to be found. More modern artifacts such as tires and even a golf cart are the only discoveries to date however.

To read more about the project, click here.


Demolition of the East Span of the Bay Bridge

Utilizing positioning equipment installed and supported by eTrac, crews have begun to carefully dismantle nearly 2 miles of the 77-year old East Span of the Bay Bridge section-by-section, in roughly the reverse order of how it was built in the mid-1930s.

Crews will first work in the westward direction toward Yerba Buena Island, taking apart the cantilever section and demolishing the S-Curve, before moving east to dismantle the 504’ and the 288’ truss spans. The demolition team will then head to the waterline to remove the piers, pilings and foundations that support the span. When the entire demolition project is complete, over 58,000 tons of steel and 245,000 tons of concrete will have been removed.

For more information about the project, check out the Bay Bridge website here.


Channel Migration in Dillingham, AK

eTrac assisted the USACE in monitoring the migration of the main channel of the Nushagak River by Dillingham, providing the first full multibeam survey of the area. It appears that the deepest part of the river is getting closer to Dillingham. This is the first in an ongoing series of surveys over the coming years to monitor and address the changes.


Object Detection in the Bay

eTrac performed an object detection survey in the Bay Area where many underwater obstructions were found including a car, multiple boats, and the remnants of a deteriorating pier. Remnants of the pier were visible at low tide, but not during high tide, making the survey more challenging. The high detail of the data that was collected allowed us to identify smaller obstructions, including small skiffs and even objects as small as car tires.


Multibeam Survey of Humboldt Ocean Disposal Site

eTrac completed a multibeam survey of the Humboldt Ocean Disposal site approximately 10 miles offshore. Mulitbeam and snippets data were collected on an R2 2024 down to 400ft to create both bathymetry and backscatter grids. A sediment classification map was created using this data with sediment samples collected across the area.