NORFOLK, Va. -- New York District personnel recently visited Norfolk District to help with sampling operations as part of a pilot program involving dredging and low-use navigation channels.

Physical Science Technician Tom Wyche and intern Mike Folcik, Operations Division, shipped a special P-5 Electric Vibrocore system down to Virginia where it was used to take samples in channels in Mathews County, Va.

“We have a P-5 Electric Vibrocore that we routinely use here around the New York Harbor,” Wyche said. “We got a call from the Norfolk team that it would be helpful to their work and we worked with them on the logistics of getting us and the equipment down to Virginia.”

The coring system uses vibrations to get coring tubes deep into the ground below channels, allowing Corps personnel to gather samples to determine what kind of material they are dealing with. The system’s use of vibrations helps it get lower into tougher material.

The information gathered from sampling is used to make better informed decisions regarding dredging and plan for the management of dredged material that is removed from the channel.

Wyche, who works with the District’s Dredged Material Management Section, and Folcik, District Technical Support Branch, worked with Norfolk District personnel by gathering dozens of samples from Queens Creek and Horn Harbor.

“Coring can be a tricky operation at times,” Wyche said. “So much can go wrong to delay a coring operation, often events beyond one’s control – things like bent core tubes, bad weather, tidal currents, vessel traffic, to name a few.”

He said the sampling operations in Mathews County went smoothly though and that all the sample sites were completed in 3 days without the loss of any gear or equipment.

Wyche and Folcik worked with Norfolk District’s Robert Huntoon, a geotechnical engineer, and Marc Gutterman, an environmental specialist, and their team. The work was in support of a pilot program regarding low-use navigation channels.

According to Huntoon, Horn Harbor and Queens Creek were identified to be the focus of the pilot program looking at the potential of working with local sponsors on having them undertake maintenance dredging of certain channels.

The Corps would fund and provide expertise through things like planning, data collection, environmental permitting which would then allow the local sponsor to carry out the dredging.

“Overall, the trip was a great experience,” Wyche said. “We were extremely impressed with the professionalism and hospitality of the Norfolk team and I’m glad we could support the good work they’re doing.”

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