NDTScan surveys marine structures at Maldon for the harbour authority, port operators, engineers, insurers and private owners. Maldon 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.
The survey at Maldon is planned around the tide. Steel is measured from the survey boat at the right state of water and from the foreshore at low water; concrete is scanned and tested from the deck and the face; the drone covers the superstructure and the ROV covers what never dries. Readings are located on a plan of the structure, and thinned or deteriorated zones are shown as shapes so the engineer sees where the problem is rather than reading a table.
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 Maldon 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.
Marine access is the expensive part of any repair at Maldon, which is why the survey has to be right before the scaffold, the barge or the divers are booked. NDTScan measures the structure, interprets the readings and reports them in a form the engineer can design from, so the repair is sized to the condition that exists rather than the condition that was feared.
Scan before you repair. That is the standing advice for every Maldon client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services at Maldon
- Ultrasonic Thickness Testing Remaining wall thickness and corrosion mapping on steel piles, sheet piles, jetty beams, dolphins, lock gates, pontoons and hulls at Maldon, 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 Maldon structure.
Marine Work at Maldon
Around Maldon the work divides into baseline surveys that give an asset engineer numbers for a structure that has never been measured, targeted surveys where thinning or spalling has been seen and needs quantifying, pre-repair surveys that size a scheme correctly before it is priced, and reinspections that show the rate of change. Harbour authorities, marina operators, councils, the Environment Agency, engineers, contractors, insurers and private owners all instruct on the same basis.
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 Maldon and the whole of the UK coast from its Oxford base.