BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District Survey Team, responding to a temporary need for experienced surveyors, conducted project condition surveys for the Alaska District in June on the Aurora and Harris harbors in Juneau and the North Harbor in Petersburg.

The Buffalo District Survey Team has provided similar survey services assistance to several other districts in numerous states over the last four years, including Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Project condition surveys, also known as PCS, are periodic assessments of federal navigation channels and projects that are vital for channel clearance assessments. These surveys are primarily used to determine if project conditions -- for example, shoaling, which is the buildup of sand, silt, and soil on the bottom of a body of water over time -- have changed enough to warrant maintenance dredging.

"The PCS is very important because it allows our stakeholders to determine the current condition and clearance of the navigation channels," said Roman Figler, Chief of the Buffalo District Survey Team. "Knowing how much available clearance there is and the draft a boat has can prevent it from running aground or being damaged."

Each year, 2.3 billion tons of both foreign and domestic cargo, valued at $2 trillion, moves through U.S. ports and waterways. Fifty-nine high-use harbor projects account for 90 percent of the cargo moving on the harbors and channels, carrying more than 10 million tons per year.

The survey team uses a multi-beam sonar system, which provides a full-bottom, three-dimensional mapping of the harbor. To capture the project conditions, 256 sonar beams are directed downward to the harbor floor, and once the data is collected and analyzed, it is converted to a map using computer-aided drafting software. The team is still in the process of analyzing the data, Figler said.

"We were fortunate to have the Buffalo District come out because our existing workload required us to seek additional resources to assist us," said Tom Sloan, Chief of the Alaska District Survey Team. "In addition to the team's technical skills, the Buffalo District team had the talent and the experience to get the job done efficiently."

While conducting the surveys, the Survey Team also trained a new hire in the Alaska District, who benefited from seeing the work performed, Figler said.

To minimize costs and to keep the survey project within budget, the Buffalo District Survey Team rented a 26-foot long boat and a portable multi-beam sonar system to properly equip the boat for the job. They also had some additional survey equipment shipped to the project site in advance of their arrival.

To maximize efficiency, the two crews worked independently during the high and low tide events. During low tide, the hydro crew surveyed the deep water portion of the federal channel and the land crew surveyed the tidal flats, which also served as the ground truthing for the multi-beam survey. During high tide, the hydro crew surveyed the entire federal channel and the land crew completed a survey to locate all of the docks.

The Buffalo District Survey Team routinely conducts 36 PCS surveys each year as part of its normal workload, along with dredging support surveys. The Buffalo District has been fortunate over the last few years to have had the opportunity to assist other districts during temporary workload capacity shortages.

"The Corps of Engineers Survey Community of Practice is very active and we develop strong working relationships with our counterparts across the Corps," said Figler. "It gives us the ability to pick up the phone or send an email out to get a question answered or get some additional personnel to meet execution goals.

"We look forward to opportunities to help out other districts and have found that it is beneficial for both of us. In this case, they got to see how we approached the field execution and had one of their personnel trained with hands on experience," he continued. "We are all on the same team, so if we can help out, we will."