BergerABAM DIVE TEAM WELCOMES NEW ADDITIONS

Winter 2010 – The BergerABAM dive team welcomes three new engineer-divers: Aaron Barta, Garth Nelson, and Brett Ozolin. Aaron, a graduate of Texas A&M University, is employed in the Houston, Texas, office in the Offshore Department. Garth, a Washington State University graduate, is employed in the Federal Way, Washington, office's Domestic Waterfront Department. Brett, a graduate of the University of Washington, works for the International Ports and Terminals Department in Federal Way. In addition to completing basic in-house instruction in surface-supplied air (SSA) diving, they will now complete additional in-house and dive school training to gain knowledge and experience in the practice of SSA diving.

The dive team was started in 1980 to provide high-quality underwater inspections by licensed engineers. Prior to organizing the firm's own engineer-diver inspection team, BergerABAM had to rely on commercial divers, whose inspection and report-writing were sometimes inconsistent in quality, and as a result caused difficulty interpreting the reason behind any observed damage. Now, engineers in the water personally observe and describe the damage, determine the likely cause, and recommend the appropriate repair to topside BergerABAM personnel. That same engineer will then prepare the drawings and specifications for repair of the structure. Originally organized by Bill Allen, who led the team until 1998, Bruce Ostbo, diving officer, and Scott Branlund, assistant diving officer now lead the team, which is composed of 13 divers and 6 tenders. Of those 19 people, 9 are registered civil and/or structural engineers, 4 are engineers-in-training, and the remainder are specially trained technician-divers.

Having such a large group of trained personnel allows great flexibility in staffing to meet the client's schedule or respond to emergency situations. For instance, within 24 hours of receiving a notice to proceed, BergerABAM had a fully-equipped SSA dive team on site at the Maritime Administration's Beaumont Reserve Fleet facility in Beaumont, Texas, to survey Hurricane Ike's damage to the facility's pier.

Another challenging recent project was the first federally-mandated underwater inspection of the New Tacoma Narrows Bridge. While typical underwater bridge inspections take place at depths of 60 to 70 feet or less, the Tacoma Narrows inspections required 160-foot-deep dives. In addition, currents in the Narrows are up to a notoriously swift and unpredictable 7 knots, providing limited windows for diving. Prior to the inspections, each team member undertook a 30-hour training course in surface decompression with oxygen in a recompression chamber so the diver could complete their decompression stops on the surface rather than underwater in the swift current.

“It's a great job,” said Garth. “I enjoy diving and enjoy engineering-it's a perfect mix for me.”

“When I first learned to dive, I liked it so much, I also wanted to do it in my job. I wanted to learn how to inspect piles and underwater structures.” Aaron said.

Brett concurs. “It provides me with excellent opportunities to see how different structures, materials, and designs behave over the course of their design lives. Plus,” he said, “there is always the chance of picking up a new framing hammer dropped during formwork construction.”