NJDOT Superstorm Sandy FEMA Debris

McLaren Engineering Group was enlisted by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) to assist with the Superstorm Sandy recovery effort. As part of the FEMA Category B – Emergency Protectors Measurers team, the firm provided surveying and engineering services to locate debris and shoaling. The NJDOT worked with McLaren to map the condition information for all navigation in state channels and shore areas to protect the public from injury and harm.

Bathymetric Surveys

McLaren provided bathymetric surveys for approximately 100 nautical miles of state channels, utilizing single beam sonar rays to determine the depth and 3D contour of the channel bottom to locate debris including sunken vessels, trees, telephone poles etc. McLaren developed over 500 reports consisting of side scan targets of possible debris, which included information such as latitude and longitude, NJ State Plane coordinates, images of objects and approximate dimensions. Data reproduction needed to be accomplished accurately and quickly, and was done so.

Survey equipment used included:

• Trimble r-8 rtk with KEYNET corrections for hydro for tide and forHZ location and tide correction
• Seafloor sonarmite and transducer for soundings to mudline
• Hypack 2012
• Side scan with C-Max towfish and c-max software
• Digibar pro velocity meter detecting the speed of sound in the water to adjust soundings for transducer