telecom projects - papua, new guinea

Ecuador

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

Papua New Guinea

Peru

One of the first significant projects that put GRS's logistical capabilities to the test was a survey conducted in the summer of 2006 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.  GRS teamed up with their friends from Sea Engineering, Inc to survey areas for Alcatel's new fiber optic cable landing to outer reef where the shelf drops to almost 800 meters.  Fugro's Seafloor Survey International, the primary contractor, would survey the deeper/offshore portion of the Pacific route.  There are few companies that can operate internationally without confronting inherent financial risks and logistical problems.   Papua New Guinea is a very difficult country to conduct these types of survey work.  Port Moresby has had a history of being a less-than-safe place for foreigners to be and conduct day-to-day activities in.  Fortunately for GRS, the former Prime Minister's wife working with us to expedite many aspects of our duties and became an invaluable person to us.  Still, customs and shipping in Australia remain the big expense and problems with these types of jobs.  Our good friends/bodyguards John and Joe kept us safe while we scrambled to mobilize and fit our vessel and conduct the initial beach landing survey.

 

(Images: Port Moresby, looking East. GRS, Telikom, and PNG Security Detail at the Port Moresby airport.  From left to right: John, Elias, Richard, David, Mike, Joe, and  Bruno.)

Mark from SEI organized a dive team and directed our sub-contracted land survey team.  He was able to work on his "Pigeon" while wading through sewage mixed water and conducting the pole ranging.  This landing area represents an important component to the cable industry.  This is where burial, development, and the danger involved with cable laying ship are encountered.  Naturally, a shallow and wide reef posed a threat to their operations and required significant to detail to the final product.

All things considered, the imagery and data from the survey came out very well.  The bottom type that included flat sandy areas with coral outcrops and reefs made this the idea bottom type for our sonar systems.  Of course the limitations of the survey extend to the sharp drop-off just past the reef.  There are very few multibeam systems that can extend to these depths and still work in the shallow areas.  Fortunately, the FSSI vessel was able to approach the reef with enough time to turn off.  The second most difficult area was the inner reefs in front of the beach landing.  The only mentionable incident was the potential from being boarded by a couple of boats of more than curious villagers who decided it wasn't a good idea after our guards exchanged words with them.  In the recent past, on the exact same vessel, our Australian counterparts were boarded in these same waters months ago.  Luckily, we were a little more prepared.

Overall, the good relations with our new friends, the PNG counterparts and government agents made working in Papua New Guinea far easier than we thought it would be.  We look forward to returning to the area again and are glad to have made such good friends.

(Images: Marc Erickson (SEI) discusses the landing positions with Elias (Telikom). The approach from the water.)

(Images: Dive line through coral reef area.  This dive survey is a typical component of these types of jobs. The CAD drawing composed of the topographic, dive, and pole ranging surveys.) 

(Images: The F/V Keuta being converted into a survey vessel. Seafloor Interpretation from the geophysical data collected using the Reson 8101 ER, Sub-bottom profiler, and SIS 1500 Side-scan sonar.)