New ASCE Standard Practice Manual for Underwater Investigations

Structural inspections are currently conducted underwater throughout North America to varying standards of practice. Often, the purpose of the inspection work has been poorly defined, resulting in either too much or too little information collected to support the inspection objectives. In addition, inspections performed by unqualified personnel have led to serious problems in the past. Such instances have resulted from a lack of understanding of structural load paths and redundancies, lack of knowledge regarding construction techniques used when the structure was built, and impropriety resulting from having a vested interest in overstating damage that must then be repaired.