Western Canada Crew Conducts Inspection of Outlets and Tailraces
ASI packed up and hit the road for another project that took place in 2021. This time, a four-person crew set out in Western Canada to conduct an inspection of outlets and tailraces for a hydropower facility. One of the crew members, Tristan, was brand new to the West Coast, having transferred from the head office in Ontario to the branch office in British Columbia (BC). He and his wife arrived at their new house, and the next day Tristan set off with the crew. Tristan shared that BC came with a few learning curves, including the strict timeliness of the ferries. “We got to the ferry 29 minutes before departure, got put on the standby list and missed the ferry,” Tristan recounted. Next was the lack of late-night restaurants in the area around their work site. He added, “I think we ate at the same place every night!”
When the crew arrived onsite, they met with the client to obtain access badges. ASI began staging and testing equipment which included the client-supplied crane. The ROV was launched in each outlet channel to collect multi-beam sonar data within the shutdown period. One outlet in particular was flourishing with marine life, including some very curious seals that kept an eye on ASI’s robotic swimmer.
The non-destructive concrete tester was a new and experimental technology for underwater environments. Although this testing was included in the original scope, it was later omitted due to troubleshooting onsite and the time constraints. Within the steel penstock, ultrasonic thickness (UT) measurements were successfully collected and reported on. The multi-beam data was collected in full and post-processed to generate a detailed point cloud.
The point cloud was used for measuring scour and provided the plant engineers with an overview for maintenance and repair planning. As with all underwater infrastructures, eventually, divers would need to conduct repairs. The other deliverables included a written report, inspection video, a flythrough video of the point cloud, and annotated video and sonar stills.
The crew was happy to report, “the client seemed pleased with the results and will be having us back for more work!” Fast-forward one year to October 2022 and you’ll find ASI’s commercial dive team repairing the exact concrete that was scanned and reported on last year. Simultaneously, ASI’s remote inspection crew is onsite at another facility conducting a similar inspection for the same client.
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