Home/Industries/Ports & Infrastructure
Industry · Ports, civil & water infrastructureFind the structural problem before it becomes an incident.
Quay walls, piling, lock gates, bridge foundations, dams and reservoirs all deteriorate underwater, out of sight, on assets that are extremely expensive to fail. Inspection frequency - not inspection quality - is usually what is missing.
Maintenance backlogs grow faster than survey capacity
Port authorities and water utilities are responsible for a large stock of ageing submerged structure. The traditional survey method - divers, or a shutdown - is expensive enough that inspection becomes reactive.
These are the failures that make the news
A quay wall, a silo foundation or a dam does not fail quietly. The asymmetry between inspection cost and failure cost is larger here than almost anywhere else in the catalogue.
You cannot switch the asset off to look at it
Dewatering a penstock or closing a berth carries a cost of its own. Any method that requires a shutdown gets deferred, which is exactly how backlogs form.
Condition has to be comparable over time
A one-off inspection tells you today's state. Repeatable, positioned survey tells you the rate of change - which is what actually drives a capital maintenance plan.
Four jobs across ports, civil and water assets
Quay wall & piling assessment
Condition of berth structure, piling and mooring systems - including the berths used by high-value vessels.
Bridge scour & foundation survey
Foundation scour assessment and repeatable baseline survey, without closing the waterway or mobilising a dive contractor.
Dam, penstock & turbine inspection
Dam wall crack and erosion assessment, penstock survey and turbine runner blade inspection - without a shutdown or dewatering.
Security & documentation
Hull scanning of visiting vessels, and photogrammetric documentation of structure for digital-twin and change-detection work.
How each job is done, and with what
Port, bridge & civil infrastructure
Quay wall and piling inspection, bridge scour monitoring, mooring system assessment and underwater construction documentation. This is the category where routine inspection most clearly replaces reactive maintenance.
Dam, reservoir & hydropower
Turbine runner blade inspection, penstock surveys and dam wall crack assessment - without shutdowns or dewatering. Distortion-free HD video supports proactive maintenance planning and early risk identification.
Drinking water & treatment assets
Reservoir condition survey, intake channel inspection, and cooling and fire suppression system checks. Modular payloads let structural inspection and water quality sampling happen in one deployment.
Pipeline & culvert inspection
Internal inspection for fouling, corrosion and structural defects, plus external route survey and leak detection. Confined, flooded and zero-visibility conditions are the normal case rather than the exception.
Zero-visibility and current
Rivers, silted basins and outfalls where cameras stop being useful. Imaging sonar provides structure and hazard detection beyond camera range, and some platforms are specifically designed for rough water.
Concrete & steel repair
Cold-cure epoxy for corroded steel, lock gates, pipework and splash-zone structure - applied in place, wet or dry, with no hot work and no pre-heating.
Which platform suits which structure
Water clarity and current are the deciding factors here far more than depth.
For routine berth inspection
Blueye X-series
Deployable by port staff from a quayside within minutes, with structured reporting. The practical basis for a routine inspection programme rather than a survey campaign.
Blueye platforms →
For rivers and rough water
Tethys Robotics
Swiss-engineered for zero visibility and strong current - the conditions that defeat most vehicles. Also used for confined-space industrial inspection and search and recovery.
Tethys systems →
For the part above water
CSpect ALTUM
Telescopic pole systems that put a camera on structure at height without scaffolding, rope access or a confined-space permit. Often the other half of the same inspection.
CSpect systems →Documented deployments of the systems we supply
Reported by the manufacturers and the operators - not our own project work.
Silo foundation deterioration caught before failure
The challenge
Routine underwater inspection of silo foundations - structures that would be extremely costly and environmentally damaging to fail. Traditional dive inspection was intermittent and expensive, so it happened rarely.
The result
ROV inspection identified critical structural deterioration before failure and preventative repair was initiated. A routine inspection programme now replaces reactive maintenance, which is the change that matters more than any single finding.
Source: Blueye Robotics deployment documentation, citing Aarhus Port.
Bridge scour survey: a week-long operation done in a day
The challenge
A Japanese city required bridge foundation scour assessment - traditionally a week-long dive operation with specialist marine contractors and significant disruption to river traffic.
The result
An ROV with bathymetric mapping completed the full survey in a single day, with millimetre-level measurement accuracy and minimal surface disruption. A repeatable baseline was established for future monitoring.
Source: QYSEA deployment documentation.
What else infrastructure operators buy from us
Cold-cure repair
Corroded steel, lock gates, pipework and splash-zone structure - repaired in place, wet or dry.
Epoxy Solutions →Surface preparation
Getting failed coating and rust off structure before recoating, with controlled vibration exposure for the crew.
Surface-prep tools →Ultrasonic testing
Watertight integrity and suppression-cylinder testing across pump houses, plant rooms and control buildings.
Coltraco instruments →Sonar & positioning
Imaging sonar and positioning for silted basins, and repeatable survey geometry for change detection.
Sonar catalogue →What port and utility engineers usually ask first
Our water has almost no visibility. Is a camera any use at all?
Often not on its own, and this is the most common reason a first attempt disappoints. Imaging sonar is what provides structure and hazard detection beyond camera range in turbid or silted water, and some platforms are specifically designed for zero visibility and current rather than adapted to it. Tell us the site conditions before you choose a vehicle, not after - it changes the recommendation more than depth does.
Can we inspect a penstock or reservoir without a shutdown?
That is the main reason utilities buy this equipment. Turbine runner blades, penstocks and dam walls can be surveyed without dewatering or taking the asset offline, which removes the cost that usually causes inspection to be deferred.
How do we make inspections comparable year to year?
Positioning. Station-keeping and acoustic positioning are what let you return to the same place with the same framing, which is what turns a series of inspections into a rate of deterioration. Without it you get a photo album rather than a trend. See positioning payloads.
Tell us the structure and the water
What you need to inspect, how deep, and - most importantly here - what the visibility and current are like. That last part decides the recommendation more than anything else.
Thank you - that's with us.
We will come back to you within one working day. If it is urgent, call +45 6916 2400.