PROBLEM
The Charleston Harbor Post-45 Navigation Improvement Project included channel deepening and required monitoring of vessel-induced wake along several adjacent critically eroding islands protected by the State Historical Preservation Office of South Carolina and the National Park Service. This problem occurs in many other locations.
SOLUTION
A suite of Corps R&D technologies provided a baseline for quantifying mitigation measures related to deepening the navigation channel. Information included a combination of wave- and water-level field data collection, Automatic Identification System vessel transit analyses, and rigorous analyses of nonanthropogenic background energy, such as wind and tides. This provided a real-time, operational picture of change to the wave energy received along critical shorelines within the estuary.
IMPACT
Collected baseline data and analysis of vessel wake and ambient wave energy post-project demonstrated the limited impact to critical resources at the project. The analysis resulted in a positive relationship with stakeholders at the state and federal level. The baseline information gathered for this study and the validation of numerical tools have the potential to save the Corps millions of dollars in mitigation requirements. 50
