District Office
The Hydrographic Survey Office (HSO) is located in the Corps of Engineers' Portland District Office in downtown Portland, Oregon. The Hydrographic Survey Section receives survey data for publication from the four field survey crews. Each of the four in-house crews is equipped with a notebook computer and internal modem which allows survey data to be transmitted to the office immediately after onboard editing is completed. The A&E contract crew hand delivers edited data on disks.
To process the data, the Section utilizes Hypack and Microstation software with a HP 1055 C plotter to register and plot the data on charts. PC based Intergraph software is used to design, create and update the base chart overlays, which depict navigation aids, channel alignment, horizontal and vertical control, latitude and longitude and lambert grid system.
Hypack software is also used to design the channel template, compute volumes, and reports using either Average End Area or Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) method. An in-house designed data base software program is used to easily track and retrieve an extensive collection of previous surveys and contract drawings.
DISTRICT SURVEY VESSELS, EQUIPMENT AND SURVEY AREA
The survey vessel, Surveyor 1, is a high speed 65 foot patrol catamaran built by Kvichak Marine Industries homeported in Portland, Oregon. It surveys the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. The Surveyor 1 is outfitted with a state of the art Simrad multibeam sonar system and provides pre and post dredge survey support as well as engineering study surveys for the District.
The Hickson is Portland District's ocean going survey vessel home ported at Astoria, Oregon. This vessel's normal area of coverage is entrance bars, harbors and approaches from Cape Disappointment, at the mouth of the Columbia River, to Cape Arago at Coos Bay, Oregon. During inclement winter weather the Hickson performs condition channel and cross line surveys from the Mouth of the Columbia River to River Mile 45. In addition to providing bathymetric surveys, the Hickson has served as a diving platform and a towing vessel for magnetometer and acoustical doppler survey operations.
SURVEY BOAT WEST MARK
The Survey vessel West Mark is homeported at Portland, Ore. and performs hydrographic surveys of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. This vessel is trailered from job site to job site with a utility truck containing all the necessary office equipment to provide on-site advanced survey dredging charts. Rapid response to provide survey support for the District hopper dredges at projects such as Richmond and Alameda Naval Air Station in California, was possible because of the trailerability of the West Mark.
SURVEY BOAT K.H. PATTERSON
The Survey vessel K. H. Patterson is homeported at Coos Bay, Oregon. Performing hydrographic surveys of the southern Oregon Coastal entrances, harbors and rivers from Yaquina Bay, at Newport, to the Chetco River, at Brookings, Oregon. This vessel is trailered from job site to job site with a utility truck containing all the necessary office equipment to provide on-site advanced survey dredging charts.