telecom projects - mexico

Ecuador

Mexico (Cabo San Jose, Mazatlan, Ixtapa, Lazaro Cardenas)

Papua New Guinea

Peru

Mexico (Mazatlan, Cabo San Jose, Ixtapa, and Lazaro Cardenas)

Is it possible to survey four landing sites in three weeks?  What if these landing sites were 500 km apart from each other and a new vessel had to be mobilized for each location?

GRS and Sea Engineering teamed up once again to take this daunting task on.  Alcatel Fiber Optic Networks contracted Fugro Seafloor System International again to put this project together.  While FSSI worked in deeper water, GRS would deal with the region between the beach manhole locations to the 20m mean water depth contour. Despite initial logistics hold-ups the team of three and a sub-contracted local survey group based out of Cabo San Lucas were able to conduct shallow water geophysical surveys, conduct inspection dives in close to the surf zone, and carry out the necessary topographic surveys. 

(Images: Survey setup on the beaches of Lazaro Cardenas.  Land Surveyors, the client and Jim from SEI discuss the manhole position prior to setting up base stations.  Survey Diver working in surf along a designated plan line.) 

The geophysical survey included single beam echo sounder, sub-bottom profile, magnetometer, and side-scan sonar.  A local charter vessel was mobilized and fitted for each of the four landing sites.  The weather was consistently perfect for all locations.  Unfortunately, the data did not vary too much.  This was good news for our client who planned  on bringing their cables in soon.

The dive and topographic surveys went well.  Octavio Barbosa's (Cabo San Lucas) team made quick work of the topographic survey and produced nice deliverables to GRS in a timely manner.  The dives, conducted by SEI's Jim and John went off well despite the larger breakers in a couple of the locations.  In all cases, the GRS team was able to get in and get out of the location, fulfill the mission, and gather good data for the client. 

The only regret the team had was that we didn't have time to enjoy Mexico more.  In the 24 days spent, the group traveled 1500 miles, travelled by ferry across the Sea of Cortez, viewed beautiful Sinaloa flatlands, crossed the lush green the Sierra Madre Occidental into the coastal flatlands in southwest Mexico.   The only rough part of the project was leaving.

 

(Images: The characteristic steep beaches of Cabo San jose, Mexico. Vessel of opportunity – Jim B. (SEI), Mike L (GRS) and John W. (SEI) work their magic. Packing light = mobility = getting the job done on time and under budget.)

 

 

(Images: Seafloor characterization based on the geophysical interpretation in the inshore area.  Land and dive survey CAD drawing.)