As part of studying the migration of contaminated sediment into the busy shipping port of Newark Bay the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers required complete bathymetry of 12 nautical miles of the lower Hackensack River from shoreline to shoreline (as close a physically possible). 12 miles of a highly tidal dynamic river required the use of RTK GPS to monitor and record water levels aboard the survey vessel Red Rogers.

Numerous gauges were established along the river using RTK GPS referenced to numerous National Geodetic Survey (NGS) control points. Vessel “float tests” were performed at each gauge and adjusted at each step or plane in survey datum. All data was collected and processed using Hypack hydrographic software.