Experience

Specialized experience unique in the United States

JOA Surveys, LLC (JOA), has completed projects that set it apart in the surveying profession in the specialized fields of tides and vertical datums. Since 1998 the partners of JOA have participated on every team selected to provide hydrographic or bathymetric lidar surveying services for NOAA in the state of Alaska. JOA has worked along every portion of the remote Alaska coastline as well as on both coasts of the contiguous 48 states and the Gulf of Mexico.

Selected projects are summarized below.

NOAA NWLON Maintenance and Upgrades

2005 – 2007 Prime Contractor: David Evans and Associates, LLC
Perform annual maintenance and install new Sutron XPert tide gauge systems at 18 existing NOAA National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) tide stations in Alaska from Ketchikan to Prudhoe Bay. Required maintenance includes SCUBA diving to inspect underwater tide gauge equipment. Built 5 new tide stations in Elfin Cove, King Cove, Atka, Nikolski and Alitak, Alaska.

NGS Shoreline Mapping

2007 – 2008 Prime Contractor: Photoscience
Installed 5 tertiary tide stations to support shoreline mapping along the Rappahanock and James Rivers. Set deep rod marks and concrete marks, performed GPS observations, calculated new tidal datums and maintain tide database with real time data access on the web.

NOAA Vessel Time Charter

2007 – Prime Contractor: Fugro-Pelagos
Installed tertiary tide stations and GPS base stations to support the Vessel Time Charter NOAA hydrographic survey contract. The survey areas were divided between Chatham Strait in SE Alaska and Akutan Pass in the Aleutian Islands. Five tertiary tide stations were installed, along with multiple short term zoning observations.

Chirikof Island

2006 – Prime Contractor: Tenix/LADS
Installed a tertiary tide station to support a contract NOAA bathymetric lidar survey. The tide station was installed on a remote island 80 air miles out into the Pacific Ocean from the SW end of Kodiak Island. Installation was by boat, while maintenance and demobilization were accomplished by floatplane. The tide station was comprised of 3 submersible Seabird SBE26+ gauges with Paroscientific pressure sensors, as well as 1 onshore bubbler gauge.

Knik Arm Bridge EIS

2005 – Prime Contractor: URS Corp.
Designed and installed 3 GPS systems for deployment on cata-rafts in the extreme currents of Knik Arm, Cook Inlet. Kinematic GPS data was collected for 30 days at various locations in waters of Knik Arm and post-processed to derive a tide height series and tidal datums relative to the ellispoid. The tide data and datums were used for testing a numerical model of Knik Arm developed by URS, Corp. In addition, water level data was collected using a radar tide gauge mounted on the Glenn Highway Bridge over the Knik River in order to determine the extent of the tidal influenced area in Knik Arm.

DOT Georeferencing and Bluebooking

2005 – Alaska DOT
Performed adjustment of archived GPS baselines originally collected by other contractors for the Alaska DOT more than 10 years ago. Completed successful adjustment of several GPS networks spanning most regions of Alaska and processed the results into BlueBook compliant format for ingestion into the NGS database.

Chukchi Sea

2003 and 2004 – Prime Contractor: AeroMap US
In the fall of 2003, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) tasked AeroMap U.S. and John Oswald & Associates, LLC (JOA) with mapping 300 miles of shoreline along the Chukchi Sea, from Cape Prince of Wales to Point Hope, excluding Kotzebue Sound. Over the course of the 2003 and 2004 field seasons, JOA installed and operated 10 tide stations, performed GPS control surveys, and installed and maintained GPS base stations in a project area stretching from Wales to Point Hope, Alaska, for prime contractor AeroMap U.S. In 2003, AeroMap U.S. flew tide coordinated aerial photography missions along this shoreline to map the mean high water (MHW) shoreline, and in 2004 AeroMap U.S. mapped the same coastline with lidar to determine the mean lower low water (MLLW) shoreline.