Page 9 – Otak

2nd Street Bridge Brings A Community Back Together

The design of a bridge reflects not just a path over an obstacle, but also the joining of two areas of land that are separated. For Otak’s designers, the 2nd Street Avenue bridge in Lyons, Colorado, had a third purpose, which was to put a community back together after it had been devastated by the 2013 floods.

The previous bridge was heavily damaged by floodwaters and debris.

When the floods hit, water beat on the bridge for several days and a fallen log hit one of the key structural supports. Flood debris covered the bridge’s piers causing water to infiltrate the town’s wastewater treatment plant, destroy a storage building and equipment used by the town’s Public Work Department, and damage a downstream bridge. Eventually, the damaged and unsafe bridge took away the connection between the town, two housing subdivisions, a church, a school, a park, and a recycling center.

Otak was hired by the town to do emergency repairs to the bridge and to design the new structure. Zak Dirt was brought in as the contractor. Various engineers worked on the project throughout its lengthy design process, with Otak’s Structures Group Manager Dan Beltzer finishing out the job. “We had a great team to guide this work. The design really shows how simply rebuilding isn’t always enough. This bridge was built back better as a sustainable structure that will last well into the future,” Dan says.

The new single-span bridge is 139 feet, crossing the St. Vrain Creek. The design was approved in the fall of 2019 and construction started in 2020 with a cost of about $4 million funded in part by FEMA with assistance from the Colorado Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief program. The new bridge was built six feet higher than the original structure, to convey the 100-year storm event to allow for future floodwaters and debris to safely pass under it. It was also built to withstand a 500-year scour event. Dan says scour is the number one reason bridges collapse.

A ribbon cutting celebrated the new bridge and memorialized the town’s former engineer.

The project was unique in that it was the first bridge in the state to use the Colorado Department of Transportation’s new Bulb-Tee concrete girder shape. “Colorado’s new standard provides more girth, which allowed us to further minimize the required bridge depth as compared to the previous standard – which helps the hydraulic conveyance while minimizing the required raise in roadway grade. The new standard became available very late in the design process and none had yet been built. In fact, only one fabricator had the ability at that time to construct the girders. Still, pricing and learning-curve concerns gave way to the design benefits.” Dan comments.

A ribbon-cutting was held on July 8 to celebrate not just the completion of the bridge and one of the last FEMA flood recovery projects in the community, but the resiliency of Lyons. Dan says the ceremony also stood as a memorial to Jim Blankenship who served as the town’s engineer for over a decade, and worked with Otak on several projects, including the Main Street Reconstruction project, which won the APWA Colorado’s overall Project of the Year award. The event drew dignitaries, such as Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper, Congressman Joe Neguse, and Lt. Governor Primavera. The officials touted the ability of not just Lyons, but of any community, to build back better and ensure a safer future.

Otak Welcomes Millicent Williams as New Regional Director OR & SW Washington

As Otak celebrates its 40th year, we’re setting our sights firmly on the future and the work we still have to do in the communities we serve. We’re excited to announce to everyone here at Otak, our clients, and our community partners, that Millicent Williams, former Deputy Director at the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), has joined the Otak team as the new Regional Director for Oregon/SW Washington focused on the public sector.

Jim Hamann, Otak’s CEO, reflects, “Millicent’s wide-ranging experience and background will help us address tomorrow’s challenges with fresh, creative approaches. Millicent leads our business in Oregon and SW Washington with a focus on public sector clients and projects. The challenges that communities are facing call for fresh approaches and solutions that reflect a responsiveness to the needs of the whole community. She will make a significant contribution in how we respond.”

With over 20 years working in the public sector at all levels from grassroots community service to providing agency leadership, Millicent brings a fresh perspective to Otak. “My life and professional experiences have shaped my perspective and influenced the way that I engage. I grew up on the east coast and attended Florida A&M University. My sense of obligation to serve communities and bridge gaps led me to a career in public service which formally started in Washington DC and has taken me to jurisdictions across the country. I’m an innovative problem-solver and, because of my approach, have had the opportunity to work across a broad spectrum of disciplines. Here in Oregon, transportation has been my focus. It was my pleasure to work to align PBOT’s goals with the needs of community members who understand the importance of having a transportation system that serves them well. I look forward to bringing my understanding of local, state, and national government operations, and community partnership to Otak as we seek to grow public sector relationships.”

Millicent is excited about her role at Otak and continuing the work she has been doing in the public sector from a new perspective. “I have an opportunity to work with an incredibly talented team of planners, engineers, architects, project and construction managers, who work collaboratively to design and build projects that reflect a sensitivity to what clients and their communities are looking for. I believe Otak can excel at delivering on their vision and look forward to supporting its broad organizational goals.”

Otak Celebrates 40 Years

A business anniversary—especially the 40th—is always a point of reflection. If we could hop in a time machine and dial it back 40 years, we might be amazed at how much our world has changed. The differences over 40 years are amazing and yet often cliché. Consider this: in 1981, many of Otak’s staff wasn’t born yet or that the very nature of how we produce our work was completely transformed when Microsoft released its first software. No question, our world is much different than it was in 1981!

Yet as Otak celebrates 40 years, some things are as recognizable as ever. The things that matter have remained our focus: Our commitment to the communities we work in. Bringing unique and exciting solutions by applying all of Otak’s creative resources to each project. A culture that feels like family at work and at play. Over 40 years, we’ve strengthened what matters.

Our people—many of whom have been with us for most of our history—have always made the difference at Otak. We thought it fitting to take their recollections of what made Otak great and recreate that journey with this video celebration of Otak’s 40 years!

Protecting National Wild & Scenic Rivers

Enacted in 1968, the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System (WSR Act) has safeguarded rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values. The WSR Act also provides a framework for river use planning and management by federal and state agencies. As we celebrate National Rivers Month, Bill Valliere, Otak Research Analyst and member of Otak’s new Visitor Use Planning & Management (VUPM) team reflects on how his group’s work is aiding comprehensive river management plans and protecting national rivers.

While the team itself is new, their body of work is not. For example, Bill, and Steve Lawson, VUPM Director, have been working together on and off since 1999 on issues surrounding visitor use, management, and planning for outdoor recreation spaces—specifically with regard to how many people can visit natural places without either the experience or the resources being degraded. “Steve and I first met and worked on a project in Yosemite National Park that was eventually part of the Merced River comprehensive management planning. It was a very controversial, and complicated procedure, but it was ultimately successful,” Bill states, “More recently, we’ve been working with the U.S. Forest Service on some of their rivers that are in need of comprehensive river management plans.”

Otak’s VUPM team is dedicated to analyzing, modeling, and planning for visitation levels and patterns within the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, national parks, protected areas, and a wide variety of buildings and public spaces. Bill and the rest of the team offer a specific set of skills and expertise that public agencies typically do not have on staff but are critical to effective planning and use management. In the case of wild and scenic rivers, the VUPM team will be able to help ease a backlog of work.

Every river that is designated as a wild and scenic river needs to have a comprehensive management plan within three years of designation. Bill points out that “some of those rivers have gone beyond the three years and the Forest Service is trying to make up ground on the backlog of rivers that need to have these plans in place.” In this regard, the team will work primarily on the portion of those plans that deal with visitor use management and visitor capacity, providing key data on how many people specific river corridors can accommodate without degrading the wild and scenic designation values.

Photo simulation used for a study on the Merced River.

Through various studies, the VUPM team estimates the numeric capacities required by law. The team does not stop there, though. “We also provide strategies and tactics that managers may use to actually reduce impacts to the resources and potentially increase capacity,” Bill states. Trail design, access points, and other river features are brought into consideration with specific recommendations. “It’s a balancing act and we are often weighing different aspects of the river itself and the corridor to figure out where that capacity should be drawn from. A river may be designated because it holds a variety of outstandingly remarkable value, including recreation, wildlife, geology, or hydrology—there are a variety of values for which a river may actually be recognized. And those are the values we have to protect or improve upon.”

The capacity portion of the management plans is often a challenging part of the planning process for a given wild and scenic river. As one of the few firms providing visitor use and planning services of this nature, Otak is uniquely positioned to fill the gap with the expertise of its VUPM team who have been solving capacity and land use issues for more than 20 years. Bill and the team are excited about the work they are now able to do together and the impact they can have helping to protect our conserved spaces. “We want to help these land use and planning agencies be able to get those plans done so that they’re in compliance with the law and better manage the resources for present and future generations.”

Ryan Makie Recognized For Support Of Army Guard Reservist Major Cody Kent

Otak is proud to announce that Ryan Makie, Water Resources Group Manager, has received the Patriot Award from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) program. Ryan was nominated by Army reservist and Otak Stormwater Planner, Cody Kent.

The Patriot Award is given to a soldier’s supervisor who offers support to the Army Reserve’s missions through measures such as flexible schedules, time off prior to and after deployment, caring for families, and granting leaves of absence.

“The whole office has been really supportive, and I wanted to recognize Ryan personally as a representative of Otak’s culture. Before deployment, I felt Ryan supported my service in the Army Reserves. During deployment, he went above and beyond and really shined. My wife and I had our first child in 2019 and, of course, 2020 was an incredibly stressful year for everyone with the pandemic and wildfires. Ryan kept me connected to Otak and reached out to both me and my wife to offer his support throughout the year. When I came back, despite all the changes, he helped me jump right back into work, and I quickly felt like I hadn’t left,” said Cody. Army Reserve soldiers commit to training one weekend each month and for two weeks every summer. They can also be called into full-time service to support Army combat missions, as was the case for Cody, who was deployed to Jordan for nearly all of 2020. He nominated Ryan when he returned to Otak in January 2021.

Ryan received the award during an online ceremony held June 9, 2021.

Ryan’s award reflects Otak’s commitment to stand behind our soldiers and the work they do to protect our country. We are happy to work with our employees who are in the Army Guard or Reserves and support the important commitments they hold outside of their employment with us.

“We are grateful for Cody’s service to our country and proud of the work he has done while deployed. The important skills Cody has gained during his service reinforce his professional growth here at Otak. We are honored to be able to support Cody and his family while he is hard at work with the U.S. Army Reserves,” Ryan commented.

Congratulations, Ryan, and thank you for your service, Major Cody!

Chris Romeyn Engineers Solutions To Sustain The Environment

The practice of Water and Natural Resources combines science and engineering to find a balance between the built and natural environment. For Otak, a company that strives to build sustainable communities in all its work, WNR is a critical discipline. While its WNR team is a mix of engineers and scientists, it’s not often both those skill sets are rolled into one employee, but that’s what Otak found in the hiring of Chris Romeyn as Senior Water Resources Engineer.

Tracy Emmanuel, Colorado Water Resources Director commented, “Chris brings wide-ranging experience and technical expertise that will help guide our design process, as well as provide crucial mentorship for our team.”

Chris had been flirting with Otak for a few years after a former colleague went to work for the company and tried to entice him to come aboard. He was interested in working for a smaller firm than the one he was with and liked what he saw at Otak, but it took a twist of fate with the arrival of the pandemic and forced work from home to solidify his hire. Chris had learned he preferred working at home or at least close to home in Glenwood Springs, Colorado and Otak is interested in expanding its services to that area of the state. With Chris’s background meeting Otak’s needs, the match finally clicked and Chris was hired in January.

A love for environmental issues and solutions goes back to Chris’s teenage years when he became obsessed with Edward Abbey’s books that touted environmental advocacy and showcased his time as a park ranger at Arches National Park. Chris ended up at the University of Vermont studying Natural Resource Management. Even with a degree in hand, Chris turned to his love of outdoor adventure and took a job in New Mexico working for the ski patrol.

Eventually, realizing he needed more of a career, he took the advice of a friend’s father and went back to school for his engineering degree, ending in a dual BA/MA program. Chris said the decision provided him with a broad set of skills combining technical competencies with a scientific understanding of waterways. “My goal has always been to do restoration work, but adding engineering broadened my skill set and set me up to land in consulting,” he said.

Chris is already putting his myriad of skills to work on complex projects at Otak. One is a fish passage that Otak was contracted to design through a grant from a non-profit. Chris explains there are two large river diversion structures that lie within a quarter-mile of each other and span about 100-feet across the river. The structures are at least 50 years old and can only dam the river up about three feet. For the fish that live there, and spawn in the Colorado plains, the existing fish passage is impossible to clear because they don’t jump. Chris says ramps that are several hundred feet long will have to be designed and built to give the fish a fighting chance of survival.

Other aspects of the project are to design for efficient sediment transport and meeting the needs of irrigation ditch owners. The overall project involves ditch companies, the USFWS, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, a water conservancy district, a fisheries biology professor from the University of Colorado, as well as the Otak team. The project is being funded through DOLA using federal funds and is sponsored by a non-profit watershed coalition.

Part of being a leader is having the ability to share your expertise with co-workers, and for Chris, that especially means his work with junior engineers. He has two points he feels are the most important to share. First is that critical thinking is the most crucial thing for a junior engineer to learn. There is no one solution to a problem, but there is a best solution, and an engineer must be able to look at all the facts and form a judgment for what will work. Chris said to get there the second idea he coaches is that people need to be comfortable to ask questions. “Learning from your mistakes works, but sometimes it’s good to feel comfortable going to someone who knows,” he said. He also commented that he faces his own challenges with his role as a mentor in letting go of the reins and accepting that someone else may do something differently than he would but that doesn’t make it incorrect.

Going forward, Chris is excited by the opportunities he sees to help grow the Colorado office and take on challenging projects that allow him to share his expertise at keeping waters flowing and fish swimming.

Disaster Relief Efforts: Bringing Life Back to Communities Devastated by Fire

When a historic fire season raged through Oregon in the fall of 2020, no one could have imagined the forest fires would raze entire communities to the ground. Particularly hard hit were the small towns and rural communities like those in the Santiam Pass and along the McKenzie River east of Eugene. Rebuilding will take considerable effort and time.

Otak has a long history of working with rural school districts managing bond programs and capital improvement projects and has developed relationships with school principals and super- intendants (often one and the same in smaller districts). So, when the McKenzie School District (MSD), which serves 220 K-12 students, was caught in the fires, it struck home for Stephen Wasserberger, Senior Project Manager at DAY CPM, an Otak Division.

“Just driving through there is mind-boggling, absolutely mind-boggling,” Stephen stated when describing a recent visit to the area. “And then as you start to get to the areas where the residences are burned and all the buildings are gone, it’s just heartbreaking.”

Destruction Outside the Scope of School Bond

The MSD was already seeking approval of a 15 million dollar bond when the forest fires came through, leveling many homes, businesses, and community centers. The McKenzie High School lost the grandstand to the football field, a storage building, and a concession stand—structures outside the scope of the bond, which means any replacement funds are going to come from insurance money, FEMA, and state emergency grant money. With an understanding of replacement values and insurance, Stephen knew it was going to be a struggle to replace the structures, let alone fully fund new structures with updated designs and materials to match current building codes and standards.

The site of the grandstand before fire engulfed it.

“This is when I knew we could help. We could help the district get things off the ground and if we did this work pro-bono, we could save the district considerable costs, and really make a difference,” Stephen stated. “This is a community that’s been completely traumatized. They lost about four hundred homes. Teachers lost their homes. Obviously, students and families lost their homes. So stepping in to help was about doing the right thing, supporting a community, and supporting people who are in a really bad spot.” This goes to the heart of what Otak is about and the work the firm does transforming communities, so it was no surprise that Stephen was able to garner support for a pro bono project from his team and the rest of Otak.

Reconstruction: Otak and Contractors Stepping up to Help

For the past two months, Stephen has been acting as Owner’s Rep for MSD on the reconstruction project, working with district leaders guiding them through the whole design and construction document process, as well as cost projections and funding, and securing contractor bids through an RFP process. Stephen has also taken the time to dive into various aspects of proposed designs, working with Soderstrom Architects and contractors to keep costs down while delivering new structures that will best serve the district and the community. Many of the contractors involved in the project had personal ties to the community and they were eager to be involved. Soderstrom, who has also provided pro bono work on the architectural plans for the grandstands, had already been working with MSD to provide facilities assessments for the bond.

The next step is garnering all of the necessary permits to begin construction. Although Lane County has waived permit fees, the process still takes time. Completion of the new grandstand, storage shed, and concessions stand—all of which will be constructed of non-combustible materials—is projected for the fall of 2022. For a small community like McKenzie, that day cannot come soon enough. “They want their grandstands back,” Stephen expressed. “Sports is a galvanizer and Friday night football is part of the community. It brings people together and in a time where, you know, things aren’t so great, it’s a positive thing. Giving the kids and the families a chance to get out, to just do something fun—every community deserves that.”

We will chronicle this journey as work progresses along with feedback from the community. Stay tuned for the next installment.

The Fields Apartments: Affordable Housing Melds with Nature, Urban Transit, and a 40-Year Old Neighborhood

At the junction of Wall Street and Hunziker Street in Tigard, OR sits a parcel of land offering access to nature, sweeping views, and close proximity to public transit. While originally zoned for commercial development, the City of Tigard, local residents, and the Washington County Housing Authority had other ideas. The developer, DBG Properties, also saw the greater opportunity—one that answered both housing and commercial needs—and together with Otak’s vision, addressed the concerns of the existing 40-year-old neighborhood.

The opportunity lay within how the property was to be divided. The majority of the 17 acres had been zoned commercial with a mandate of being able to provide 280+ jobs, however, a portion of the property had been set aside for residential development. When Otak was brought into the project, the plan was to build office space along Hunziker Street and push the residential development to the back of the property, however, the housing project was to be developed first.

“Knowing that the office piece was not going to be developed right away, we decided to bring the residential to the front of the property and pushed all the office to one big piece in the back,” states Matt Neish, Otak Senior Project Manager. The rearrangement had two key benefits. First, it allowed for a bigger piece of the property to be commercially developed with either a couple of office buildings or one larger building. And because of the necessary road extension, the address would be on Wall Street. “Now, who doesn’t want to be on Wall Street?” Matt asked.

Second, with the housing situated in the front of the property, there was a greater opportunity for creating something special for residents that would be integrated into the steep hillside, taking advantage of the abundant nature, and sweeping views.

There were challenges, of course, the steep hillside, being one of them. The bigger challenge, though, was gaining approval from the residents of the long-standing neighborhood community immediately adjacent to the property. “The residents were very entrenched and organized in what was happening around them and they were initially opposed to the development,” Matt said. Increased traffic and overflow parking on the neighborhood streets were top concerns. There was also a negative connotation around the concept of affordable housing.

Collaborative Approach Leads to Positive Outcome

With this understanding, Otak took a collaborative approach working with the residents, the city, and the developer to come up with solutions that met all the stated concerns as well as the primary objectives for the property. As Matt explained, gaining the trust and approval of the residents began with the first neighborhood meeting. “When we first presented the project, we were careful in our use of the term workforce housing versus affordable housing. We knew affordable housing is not always well received into existing neighborhoods. Workforce housing, on the other hand, represents an annual median income around forty thousand dollars, and tends to be more positively received.”

Otak’s approach to the Field’s project was nothing new for the firm and is standard practice for the integrated teams who are accustomed to creating solutions to complex situations. Ultimately, Otak was able to bring all of the project’s ambitions into one cohesive design that met the needs of all parties involved. “By the time we got to go before the planning commission, we received unanimous approval of the design and we were able to get the buildings permitted,” Matt said.

Blending into the Scenery

Adding to the complexity of the project was the geography of the site itself, which is situated on a steep hillside. In the end, though, it was the hillside that led the team to creative design solutions that ultimately appeased the neighborhood residents. A key decision was to cut into the slope so that all the units could have daylight. As Matt explained, “We went through a couple of different iterations and ended up with four-story buildings, three of which have bridges to an upper parking area,” He added that “the views this site offers are just amazing, and because the site keeps sloping down, even the first floor buildings are going to be higher than anything that will be developed next door.” According to Matt, any commercial development will most likely be single-story, concrete, industrial-style buildings.

An added benefit to cutting into the hillside was that it allowed the housing development to have a lower profile, which was appealing to the adjacent property owners. The completed project also includes a green roof on the clubhouse, further blending the development into the hillside, and surrounding trees and nature. “We actually had to put a fence up because otherwise the deer that are still on site would jump from the hillside onto the roof and eat the vegetation!” Matt exclaimed.

The final design also maintained a one-hundred-foot buffer along the eastern property line that backed up to the neighboring homes, many of which were completely open without fencing of any kind. “The homes simply backed up onto this treed hillside that had been there for forty years, and the homeowners felt like they were losing that,” Matt said. The buffer helped to preserve a good number of the trees and the natural setting for the property owners.

Providing Connectivity

One of the city mandates was to make a connection from the adjacent neighborhood, onto and across the property, and ultimately connect to future development to the west. The developer was also directed to ensure that connection would then continue on down to Wall Street. The city also wanted to put in a sky bridge connection from the site over neighboring rail lines, which are used by both freight and the West Side Transit system, to a trail system on the other side that eventually connects to the Tigard City Hall and Library. As Matt stated, “in addition to preserving the views and surrounding nature to satisfy the neighborhood, the design also had to be centered around walkability and connectivity.”

In the end, the Otak and DBG Properties were able to deliver an affordable housing development that met the multiple mandates by the City of Tigard and the Washington County Housing Authority but also overcame the objections of the neighborhood. With 264 units of mixed one, two, and three-bedroom units geared towards families, sweeping views, a clubhouse integrated with nature, and a walkable trail system connected to neighborhoods and urban transit, The Fields is an example of what modern affordable housing can look like. It is also an example of how a collaborative approach working with the community can lead to innovative solutions and positive outcomes that benefit all parties.

Otak Embraces Earth Month

An interesting discovery was made this year when scientists began to see that forcing everyone to stay home–away from their cars, avoiding plane rides– and watching big businesses turn to remote work had a positive impact on our environment. No one is saying that shutdowns are the answer, but it became a bit clearer that we can do better to protect our planet.

And a clean planet is what is being celebrated this April with Earth Month. Otak embraces sustainable and environmentally sound practices in all that they do, and so it is little surprise the people who make up Otak have been busy engaging in Earth Month activities. From educating clients to rolling up our sleeves to supporting those who work hard to protect the planet, we prioritize the earth this month and all the rest of the months of the year.

We started with our embrace of Earth Month by issuing a reminder to our clients that our accredited staff can help lead them through the sustainable development verification/certification process for their projects. Whether they are looking at LEED, Green Globes, Earth Advantage, Envision, SITES, EcoDistricts certification or others, we stand ready to help. Even for clients that may not be pursuing certification, we can use the same design principles and point them towards a wealth of resources to set them on a sustainable path.

For our “boots on the ground” Earth Month activity, Otak’s Portland office marketing team volunteered to pick up trash for SOLVE Oregon, an organization with a mission to improve the environment and build a legacy of stewardship. The group worked with other volunteers to collect 2,000 pounds of trash filling a 10-cubic-yard dumpster. Others from the Portland office got to work cleaning the company’s adopted stormwater planters, and still other staff members joined in their own Earth Month projects that were closer to their homes or their hearts.

Otak also looks inward to its own environmental stewardship. We have been working internally to reduce our carbon footprint and we’ve made great strides this past year in part because of the shift to remote work. We reduced our emissions a full 25% over 2019 and in partnership with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, we offset 827mT of carbon. Our offsets will go towards projects that include West Coast Tree Planting, Promise the Pod, Tribal Lands Renewable Energy, and Clean Energy Futures Education Program.

The last way Otak recognized Earth Month was by supporting environmental initiatives directly with our charitable giving. For Earth Month donations this year we chose organizations whose missions were focused on environmental conservation, stewardship, or mitigating the impacts of climate change. Each of our regions selected two organizations. This year’s recipients include: Depave and the Watershed Alliance of SW Washington in the Portland/Vancouver region; EarthCorps and Washington’s National Park Fund in the Redmond/Everett region; and The Greenway Foundation and Wildlands Restoration Volunteers in the Denver/Louisville region.

Earth Month may be over, but Otak will continue on its path to increase sustainable practices, elevate environmental awareness, and modify our operations to reduce our own carbon footprint.

Otak Survey Teams Expand Capabilities in Bathymetric Mapping and Hydraulic Modeling

Otak has long been at the forefront of survey and mapping processes and electronic data collection. With the recent acquisition of the Hyrdrolite single beam sonar and the Hydrone, an unmanned surface vessel (UVS) with the AutoNav system from Seafloor Systems, Otak’s survey teams have expanded capabilities in bathymetric mapping and hydraulic modeling. As Nathan Dasler, Otak Water Resources Engineer, states, “we now have an easy way of collecting a significant amount of accurate data for mapping channel bottoms to aid in our fish passage and stream restoration work, as well as construction and engineering projects that are either abutted against bodies of water or submerged.”

Equipped with pre-programmable GPS tracking, the UVS allows for remote data collection in otherwise challenging or inaccessible environments. Further, in situations where multiple surveys are needed over time, reliable data can be collected efficiently in the same location, and with extreme precision.

The application and use of the technology and equipment in the field are proving to be beneficial in a number of settings and project types including shoreline validation, hydraulic modeling, and sedimentation measurements.

Read the complete story on how Otak is using this new technology and the data it provides to achieve greater outcomes.