The Kathryn Spirit is a cargo ship currently docked in the Port of Beauharnois, 30 km from Montreal. A cofferdam had to be built around the ship to protect the St. Lawrence River from possible pollution.
Roctest was asked to provide instrumentation for monitoring the Kathryn Spirit cargo ship for possible movement during the construction of the cofferdam. As the ship was already listed at a critical angle, the cofferdam construction needed not to make the situation any worse.
GPS Antenna at the stern
Tiltmeter at the bow
A tiltmeter and a GPS antenna were installed at both the bow and the stern for monitoring the Kathryn Spirit cargo ship. The tiltmeters provide angle values in the longitudinal axis of the boat and the GPS antennas provide the XYZ coordinates at the bow and stern.
Each of the four cables, between the ship and the bank, also has a load cell to monitor tension. Finally, to monitor the water level inside the cofferdam, an ultrasonic distance sensor was also installed. All the instruments are connected to three datalogger systems, two slaves and one master; programmed to send warnings at preset alarm levels.
Load Cell on Cable
Ultrasonic Distance Sensor
The contract for dismantling the Kathryn Spirit was awarded in October of this year and should be completed by Autumn 2019.
