Courtesy Photo | A diver with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s dive team...... read more read more
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VICKSBURG, Miss. - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) dive teams are called upon for a myriad of operations. Whether performing underwater inspections, maintenance or construction tasks, these teams are essential for maintaining the safety and functionality of the nation’s infrastructure. As a part of that cadre, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) dive team is no different.
ERDC’s dive team is comprised of scientists and engineers who conduct underwater inspections, perform visual and non-destructive testing and support research efforts in coastal and underwater technologies. They are capable of deploying all over the world in all types of conditions assisting in critical research.
“The need for an ERDC dive team was prompted by the necessity to deploy instruments and gauges safely and securely,” said Tommy Kirklin, ERDC designated dive coordinator.
In the past, underwater instruments were deployed off boats, lowered with weights and put on a tag line and anchor. Between shrimp trawlers and shifting sediment, many of the gauges were misplaced or lost.
“Now, we don’t lose as many,” said Kirklin. “We jet everything in with pipes and that anchors them down pretty well. We also have an underwater camera system that allows us to video how and where the instruments are placed.”
While ERDC has housed divers in the past, the current version of the dive program began in 2021.
“It’s been going strong since 2021,” said Kirklin. “And it’s building momentum. We have four active divers and a handful of tenders.”
Earlier this year, the team participated in drysuit training exercises. Drysuits allow divers to operate in cold temperatures and potentially hazardous environments.
“The drysuit actually keeps the diver dry,” sad Kirklin. “It has seals around the wrist and neck, so you put the suit on, and if it’s completely sealed, you stay dry. You can stay down and work longer in colder water.”
This spring, the team utilized the drysuits off the coast of Long Island, New York, where ERDC has been assisting the USACE New York District with their Fire Island to Montauk Point Project. Prompted by the impacts of Hurricane Sandy, the project aims to provide long-term solutions for managing coastal storm damage risk along the densely populated and economically valuable Atlantic coastline.
As part of the project, ERDC is conducting a numerical wave, hydrodynamic and sediment transport modeling study for the district. The study requires time-sensitive data collection resulting in the need for instrumentation to be placed along the bottom of the ocean. The dive team has been tasked with installing and maintaining the devices.
“What we're doing in field data collection is really just a very small component of the broader study,” said Jarrell Smith, a research civil engineer with ERDC’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory. “We have a lot of instrumentation that we use for research that's being applied here, and it's providing data to modeling teams and to the engineers in the district.”
The study area includes approximately 126 square miles on Long Island that are vulnerable to flooding, with bottom-mounted instrumentation deployed at selected locations along the coast to measure waves, currents and water level. That instrumentation must be retrieved twice a year for data download and cleaning. Due to the harsh conditions of the Atlantic during the winter months, and the rough conditions during hurricane season, dives are scheduled in late spring and autumn.
“The spring dive is in very cold water,” said Smith, “It's probably 40 degrees, and the drysuits definitely help our divers to be a little more comfortable and stay down longer in those conditions.”
As the team approaches the end of their fifth year on the project, Smith says the divers have been integral to their mission.
“Having an in-house dive team has opened up a lot of opportunities,” said Smith. “We find that our engineers and scientists are including methods that are much better for deploying instruments just because we have a dive team, and in addition, there's some jobs we just can't do without having them on board.”
“We can do anything underwater that anyone may need,” said Kirklin. “Our team is capable of deploying instrumentation, capturing videos and inspections, any of that. We have two engineers and two technicians, and they are very capable.”
| Date Taken: | 08.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.07.2025 16:31 |
| Story ID: | 545046 |
| Location: | VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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