Seaward Marine Services mobilized a seven-person dive team and support equipment from Norfolk, VA on January 31, 2021 to provide diving services at Arthur Kill Power Station in Staten Island, NY in support of underwater cleaning, inspection, and repair items identified in the intake bays and discharge tunnel from previous 2017 and 2020 underwater inspections. Period of performance was February 3-28, 2021. Seaward Mobile Diving Unit 2 received the task.
 

​Arthur Kill Power Station, Staten Island NY

After a standby day on February 1 due to a local heavy snow storm, work commenced February 2 with equipment setup and lock out/tag out of Unit 30. Unit 20 remained operational during diving operations in Unit 30. Underwater cleaning and de-mucking of Unit 30 circulating bays 31 and 32 and traveling screen bays 31, 32, 33, and 34 was accomplished February 3-8, 2021. All mud, silt, trash, and marine growth was pumped from the intake structure floor to a settling tank where solids were separated from the de-mucking discharge stream for offsite disposal. Clean sea water from the discharge stream was returned to the Arthur Kill Waterway.
February 9, 2021 was a setup day for work in the discharge tunnel. Lock out/tag out was accomplished on Unit 20 to allow satisfactory conditions for diving operations in the discharge tunnel. Diving on the discharge side commenced on February 10, 2021. The outage timeline only allotted 10 days of diving operations to accomplish a large scope of work in the discharge tunnel. Seaward responded by mobilizing a second seven-person dive team, Seaward Mobile Diving Unit 4, to accelerate completion of the project scope by working two twelve-hour shifts. Discharge tunnel walls and floor were cleaned and de-mucked. All debris and rubble identified in previous inspection reports were removed and placed in a dumpster for offsite disposal. Repair areas were surveyed and marked for identification. Concrete repairs inside the tunnel were scheduled for October 2021.
Diving operations were secured in the discharge tunnel on Friday February 19, 2021. Seaward dive team removed equipment from the discharge tunnel and relocated to Unit 20 February 20-21. Lock out/tag out of Unit 20 was completed on February 22 and cleaning of Unit commenced in the afternoon. Underwater cleaning and de-mucking of Unit 20 circulating bays 21 and 22 and traveling screen bays 21, 22, 23, and 24 was accomplished February 22-27, 2021. All mud, silt, trash, and marine growth was pumped from the intake structure floor to a settling tank where solids were separated from the de-mucking discharge stream for offsite disposal. Treated sea water from the discharge stream was returned to the Arthur Kill Waterway.
 

             
           Seaward Marine Services Mobile 2                                                           SCAMP Machine Deployed for Tunnel Cleaning
 Diving operations secured at close of business February 27, 2021. Lock out/Tag out was cleared and equipment was packed up for transit February 28, 2021. Demobilization to Norfolk was March 1, 2021. Seaward Marine Services logged 1,564 hours of accident-free diving through the duration of the evolution. Support from the AKPS Maintenance Manager and Staff was outstanding.
             
Seaward Around the Clock Dive Ops                                                              Diver Dress and Pre Dive Checks       

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Crowley Government Services, Inc. awarded Seaward Marine Services, LLC Norfolk a firm fixed contract for removal of all skin valves including installation of cofferdams to support the removal of the thirty overboard hull penetration openings for the installation of steel blanks. The contract also required conducting an underwater hull inspection and cleaning of the underwater hull and appendages. Work was completed by Seawards Diving Vessel Coastal Pride at Lamberts Point Docks during the January 29, through March 11, 2021 availability.
 

 Seaward Marine Services, LLC provided diving services in support of cleaning and inspection of  the underwater hull, opening of all sea chest gratings for cleaning and video inspection, re-installation of sea chest gratings, opening of bow thruster gratings for cleaning and video inspection of the bow thruster motor, housing, impeller, and tunnel, re-installation of bow thruster grating, cleaning and video inspection of the propellers, rudders, depth sounding fathometer, and doppler speed log. Seaward Marine Services designed, fabricated, and installed external stern tube seals for the port and starboard propeller shafts to remain in place during layup and provided diving services for the installation and monitoring of cofferdams sealing all external shell hull penetration openings in support of internal blanking of all skin valves and ultrasonic testing of each hull penetration inside the vessel performed by Marine Hydraulics International. Dewatering and pumping of all excess water and holding tank was accomplished by Accurate Marine Environmental. Sampling of ballast water and random paint samples was accomplished by Universal Laboratories at the direction of the Port Engineer. All work was accomplished safely, within the project budget, and timeline. Coastal Pride Dive Team accumulated 1,980 hours of safe dive ops in support of this effort.

 

Seaward Marine Services Norfolk won a Military Sealift Command competitive bid for diving services on the USNS Puerto Rico (T EPF-11) at the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, VA.
 

 Seaward Marine Services Mobile Diving Unit 5 was mobilized to complete the underwater work which included cleaning the underwater hull, waterjet propulsion system, sea chests, appendages, and video inspection of the underwater hull and components. Mobile 5 Dive Team was on station 66 crew hours completing 125 hours of diving, 6 hours dedicated to inspection and documentation of the underwater hull, and 119 diving hours to cleaning of the four waterjets, impellers, stators, and the underwater hull using three divers per shift. The hull was cleaned using three 2,100 PSI pressure washers with rotary jet nozzles in compliance with the requirement to avoid damaging the sensitive fouling release underwater hull coating. All work was completed on budget during the USNS Puerto Rico October 10-16, 2020 availability.

 

Mid Atlantic Engineering Technical Services (MAETS) contracted Seaward Marine Services to provide diving services in support of USNS Joshua Humphreys at Naval Station Norfolk, VA. Work was completed September 21-25, 2020 on budget and under the allotted timeline.

 

 

 
Seaward Marine Services utilized Mobile 3 and Mobile 4 diving units in Norfolk Virginia to complete the underwater work which included cleaning and video inspection of the underwater hull, propellers, rudders, sea chest gratings, transducers, and appendages. The scope of work also included removal of the sea chest gratings allowing diver access the sea chest interiors for video inspection.

 

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded Seaward Marine Services two separate firm fixed Purchase Orders through competitive bid process to provide diving services in support of NOAA Vessels Okeanos Explorer and Ronald H. Brown.

 

Seaward Marine Services Dive Vessel Coastal Pride provided support to complete cleaning of Okeanos Explorer sonar unit, transducers, and sensors, which were cleaned by hand to assure no damage was done to the sensitive equipment. The same scope of work was completed on Ronald H. Brown with the addition of cleaning and inspection of the running gear. Okeanos Explorer work was accomplished July 21^st and Ronald H. Brown was completed September 14th and 18th, 2020 at the NOAA Marine Operations Center-Atlantic, Norfolk Virginia.