Coda Octopus UIS for Assessing Breakwaters

March 4, 2015

Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) has employed Coda Octopus Group’s (CDOC) UIS with its Echoscope® 3D imaging system to provide rapid, real time damage assessment after Hurricane Marie impacted Long Beach Breakwaters.

In late August 2014, the remnants of Hurricane Marie created large swells and waves that relentlessly pounded the Southern California Coast. Twenty foot waves disrupted operations at the Ports and caused damage to coastal infrastructure.

According to the Long Beach Press Telegram, two cargo terminals at the Port of Long Beach were forced to halt operations late on Tuesday August 26, due to concern for worker safety in the face of 10-15 foot waves.

Additionally, these waves caused extensive damage to two of the three breakwaters in San Pedro Bay that are designed to protect the harbor and Ports from storms. Damage was sustained primarily to the middle breakwater.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Los Angeles District maintains the three breakwaters and began assessing damage in the days after the Hurricane Marie intensity subsided.

Faced with a priority to repair the breakwaters quickly, USACE opted, in this instance, to ask LBPD to assess the breakwater using its UIS™. LBPD purchased the UIS using port security grant funds primarily for its security mission but also for response to man-made or natural disasters.

The Coda Octopus UIS is a turnkey solution that provides a complete underwater and above water geo-referenced image in real-time. At the core of the UIS is the Echoscope® real time 3D imaging system. This sonar system displays 3D underwater objects as they are scanned, whether they are static structures or moving objects.

LBPD conducted a dynamic survey of the breakwater to assist the USACE engineers and provided detailed high resolution mosaic images that clearly showed the overall extent of damage. This information enabled the USACE to quickly ascertain what repairs were required and to accurately define repair requirements, potentially reducing repairs costs.