NOAA announces award of new hydrographic surveying services contracts

NOAA has awarded new five-year contracts to eight private hydrographic survey companies, for projects throughout U.S. coastal waters. Under the new contracts, which cannot exceed $250 million in total, over the five-year period, the companies will provide critical hydrographic data for updating NOAA's nautical charts.

"NOAA has had a strong partnership with private survey companies for the past 15 years," said Rear Admiral Gerd Glang, director of NOAA's Office of Coast Survey, "and we rely on their high level of expertise to augment hydrographic surveys conducted by NOAA ships. This public/private partnership is key to providing the hydrographic capacity necessary to complete NOAA's charting mission."

Over the course of the next five years, the companies may be assigned survey projects anywhere on U.S. coasts, from the Arctic's Bering Sea to the Florida Keys, from the Atlantic coast to our western shores.

The eight firms awarded contracts are:

* C&C Technologies, located in Lafayette, Louisiana
* David Evans and Associates, located in Vancouver, Washington
* eTrac, located in San Rafael, California
* Fugro Pelagos, located in San Diego, California
* Leidos, located in Newport, Rhode Island
* Ocean Surveys Inc., located in Old Saybrook, Connecticut
* TerraSond, located in Palmer, Alaska
* Williamson and Associates, located in Seattle, Washington

Over the last 15 years, NOAA has awarded more than $400 million to private survey companies under Coast Survey's hydrographic contracting program.

Contractor partners have helped with important survey projects over the years. They have surveyed debris-packed waters after post-tropical cyclone Sandy in 2012; they've provided data for new Arctic nautical charts; and they have surveyed the safety fairways in the Gulf of Mexico. They have also looked for lost oil rigs, flown airborne bathymetric LiDAR in the Virgin Islands, and surveyed critical navigational areas around the nation.

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