Underwater Inspection of Waterfront Facilities and Bridges: Typical Considerations and Widespread Abuses

The importance of inspecting the substructures of bridges spanning waterways and waterfront facilities during the development of maintenance programs or prior to preparing rehabilitation or repair designs is often overlooked by public officials and engineering consultants who are ultimately responsible for overseeing such activities. By its very nature, the substructure of a marine facility is frequently hidden from view since most of the structural elements comprising it are submerged. Therefore, to assess the actual condition of structural members situated below the waterline generally requires the services of divers who possess a basic knowledge of the effects of deterioration on the safe loadbearing capacity of a marine-based structure. However, because submerged components remain visually covert, there is a widespread tendency to allocate relatively low budgets toward inspection of these items within the overall scheme of facility maintenance. Such a scenario lends credence to the age-old adage, "Out of sight, out of mind." Unfortunately, giving underwater inspection less importance or a lower priority on the budgetary scale with respect to other tasks has often proved to be disastrous, both in terms of facility maintenance costs and, more importantly, safety.