NDTScan surveys marine structures at Garston for the harbour authority, port operators, engineers, insurers and private owners. Garston harbour appears in the Department for Transport's freight statistics as a minor port, so commercial cargo still crosses its quays. All of it crosses steel and concrete that stands in salt water twice a day, and that is the stock NDTScan measures: sheet piles, tubular piles, jetty beams, dolphins, fenders, lock gates, quay walls, sea walls and slipways.
Steel at Garston is measured on a grid the engineer can repeat: remaining wall thickness on piles and beams with calibrated ultrasonic gauges, corrosion mapping where thinning is uneven, pitting depth at the splash zone and section loss at the mud line. Concrete is mapped for reinforcement and cover, tested for carbonation, chlorides and strength, and recorded unit by unit for cracking, spalling and delamination. The readings go on a drawing, not in a list.
NDTScan concentrates most of its effort after the site visit. Thickness readings are checked against the original sections, corrosion maps are drawn, radar data is post-processed and the concrete condition record is cross-checked against the photographs. The Garston report is written for the engineer or estates team that has to act on it, and it is written to stand up in front of an insurer, a funder or a tribunal.
NDTScan's advice to owners at Garston is the same as on land: measure before you decide. A jetty with thickness data on a drawing can be managed, strengthened or replaced on evidence. One that has only been looked at from the deck will be closed or rebuilt on fear. The survey is the smallest cost in the chain, and the one that sets the size of every cost after it.
Scan before you repair. That is the standing advice for every Garston client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services at Garston
- Ultrasonic Thickness Testing Remaining wall thickness and corrosion mapping on steel piles, sheet piles, jetty beams, dolphins, lock gates, pontoons and hulls at Garston, measured on a repeatable grid from the boat, the deck or the foreshore.
- Concrete Condition Surveys Reinforcement and cover mapping by ground penetrating radar, carbonation, chloride and strength testing, and unit by unit condition recording on quay walls, sea walls, breakwaters, pier decks and slipways.
- Drone and ROV Inspection Drone survey of decks, fenders, ladders and superstructure above the waterline, and inspection-class ROV coverage of the piles and walls that stay submerged, all located on one plan of the Garston structure.
Marine Work at Garston
Instructions at Garston and along this stretch of coast follow the life of the asset: baseline thickness surveys of piles and jetties before a lease or a sale, corrosion mapping where an engineer suspects thinning, concrete condition surveys of quays and sea walls ahead of a repair scheme, investigation of a berth after a vessel strike, reinspection at the interval the last survey set, and independent surveys for insurers and legal teams after a failure.
NDTScan also surveys marine structures at London, Grimsby and Immingham, Southampton, Liverpool, Tees and Hartlepool and Felixstowe and every other port and harbour in England. The service is described in full on the marine surveys page.
About NDTScan
NDTScan is a specialist non-destructive testing company based in Oxford and led by Neil Smuts. Its marine work brings together ultrasonic thickness testing and corrosion mapping of steel, concrete scanning and condition surveys, drone inspection and ROV inspection, delivered from its own survey boat or from land. NDTScan is a Level 4 UKCSS Operator, the first in the UK to achieve that certification, and it attends Garston and the whole of the UK coast from its Oxford base.