TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Where such monitoring is required, Water Surveys
Canada builds flow measuring stations: aluminum masts
are installed on both banks of a river, a pair of cables is
strung across the river and suspended from these cables is
a sensor buoy that collects hydrometric data such as depth
and cubic feet.
The spots best suited for monitoring are stretches of
river that are straight for roughly a quarter mile and tend to
remain relatively straight year over year.
Castle worked on a few of these projects for Water Surveys
Canada in southern Saskatchewan. In each instance, the
spots best suited for measuring could be easily accessed by
conventional equipment. However, the most suitable site
“What we had to be the
most cautious about was
the materials we carried.
Everything had to be secured
because we couldn’t risk
anything flying above our
heads and damaging the
helicopter blades.”
– Erroll Castle, Castle Design
& Inspection Services
for such a station along the Athabasca River could only be
accessed by helicopter.
The principal challenge was twofold: Castle had to
custom-build a piling rig small enough so it could be
hauled-in by helicopter, yet powerful enough that it could
get the job done.
The main constraint was that the maximum weight the
helicopter could carry in a single trip was 2,000 pounds. With
this in mind, Castle quickly worked up and built a rudimentary
first iteration. He ultimately chose to scrap his entirely
unique design and opted instead to Frankenstein a miniature
piling rig by sourcing existing components and cobbling
them together.
26 Q2 2020 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
