Page 52: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2020)

Case Studies

Innovative technologies @ work

Tracking Cables in a Muddy River

JW Fishers Mfg has designed and tions taking place, both calling for cof- Zohr were on the job and accomplished manufactured underwater search equip- ferdams to be installed, the pipeline the work in quickly with the help of the ment for more than 50 years. needed to be pinpointed before the proj- CT-1 cable tracker. “Once we hooked

Commercial Diving & Marine Servic- ects could continue. Some pipelines are up the pulse injector and got it working es, Inc., is one customer that has been in buried with a tracer wire alongside. The properly, we located the entire 200’ run the spotlight recently for its underwater JW Fishers CT-1 Signal Injector can in about 15 minutes.” commercial applications. The Michi- place a signal into this tracer wire, al- Commercial Diving & Marine Service, gan based company has provided div- lowing the CT-1 Probe to trace the pipe- Inc. was subsequently contracted to lo- ing services for more than 40 years, and line over great distances. The pipeline cate another 6-inch steel gas main. This owner Keith Mear employs top-notch location and burial depth can then be time, the general area of the pipe was commercial divers that perform salvage pinpointed. Another key to tracking un- known but the exact location was needed operations, preconstruction surveys, en- derground steel pipelines is that they are to allow for a bridge contractor to drive dangered species investigations, sedi- typically protected by corrosion coat- sheet pile. The pipeline was assumed to ment sampling, pipeline inspections, so- ings. Cathodic Shielding is a secondary have over three feet of overburden in ar- nar surveys, water intake cleaning, and protection system that uses a system of eas. “We needed the Pulse 8X to locate maintenance of industrial and municipal anodes and electrical currents to protect from shore to the middle of the bridge facilities throughout the Great Lakes. areas where the coating has been com- span where it was exposed. Another

The company owns both the Pulse 8X promised. The JW Fishers CT-1 Signal reason the 8X was necessary instead and CT-1 Cable Tracker, and it was Injector can be temporarily connected to of just drawing a straight line was that ecently tasked with two similar jobs that the cathodic protection station to apply drawings showed that the pipeline had ultimately required two different pieces a signal and allow the probe to track the two 90-degree elbows in it, however, of equipment. pipeline. Keith and his team ultimately they did not give the location of the el-

For the ? rst project, the team was located the pipe buried deep under the bows. Our diver was able to locate and tasked with locating a 6-inch steel gas surface. “Using the CT-1 and the Pulse buoy the elbow that was under the riv- main that had been directionally bored, Injector, our team quickly located the erbed, it turned out the other elbow was and JW Fishers’ CT-1 Cable Tracker line and had a survey team plot the coor- under riprap on the shoreline.” The div- was the right tool for the job. The main dinates. After locating the line our team er located the pipe quickly and placed was located on the shoreline of the river, measured for depth, in some areas the weighted buoys identifying the location but the exact location was unknown. pipe was about 25 ft. under the river bot- for approximately 140 feet. Diver Carl

With two separate construction opera- tom.” Divers Carl DeCaussin and Ryan DeCausin was on lead for this project.

Image: JW Fishers 52 September 2020

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