A 3D project animation video showing all facets of the works to be carried out can be viewed via this link.

Periplus Consultancy advises upon, and designs, the various survey systems required to carry out the survey and positioning activities. Many facets of this extensive and extraordinary project require highly accurate surveys and positioning monitoring services to fit their methodology and meet the contract specifications. Those include a full multibeam survey system on the workboat, positioning systems for the Crane Barge, the Dive Barge, Dive Bell, the divers, underwater assets and the ROV with 3D scanning sonar.

This project is not a routine job. The procedure and all activities have been designed and tested specifically for this project. As can be seen in the video, a lot of thought has gone into how, and with which tools, the work is carried out.

Colombia is not exactly next door and the Ituango dam is located far inland. It is therefore quite a challenge to set up this extensive project neatly according to schedule.

The project challenges we must deal with are the water depth and the existence of the spillway of the dam close to the work area with high surface currents. To provide the required underwater overview of the assets we designed a USBL system methodology suitable to work at a depth of 60 m inside a tunnel. Housings of most of the sensors are specially designed to resist the tropical environment at the location, to ensure the reliability and stability of the systems.

A complete data network and internet system has also been designed for the project site. During the initial design we planned to use the 4G mobile network. Once on site the reception was very limited, and we had to redesign our system on location. As an alternative we set up a complete Wi-Fi mesh network. After long talks with the client, we got a fiber optic connection. This gave us some flexibility. For further improvement we are looking to set up a satellite solution.

This project can be compared with the set-up of a big offshore project with ROV’s, divers and survey vessels. All units must communicate with each other. Data is shared in real time over the network, including the anchor handling which can be monitored in real time.
 

Periplus is proud to be part of this challenging project. Our experienced hydrographic survey engineers will work on a six week on/six week off rotation schedule together with DCN Diving. We advise on, and carry out, accurate surveying and positioning work, process it on site and prepare the necessary survey reports