Many of the airport runways in Alaska are not up to FAA 
standards for the aircraft that use them. FAA has given the 
state a pass for a long time, but now many must come into 
compliance by adding length, width, expanding safety 
areas or all three. The runway at Kodiak, AK required 
expanding the safety areas. As the runway is near the 
shoreline some of these safety areas include the marine 
waters offshore. 

SCOPE AND APPROACH 

EHI, in support of an EIS for FAA to provide airport 
upgrades, deployed four bottom-mounted acoustic Doppler 
current profilers in St. Paul Harbor and Woody Island 
Channel. Three of the meters measured currents and the 
fourth measured currents and waves. Due to a steady 
wind at 30 knots, it was necessary for the deployment 
vessel to set anchor at each location to minimize boat 
motion during deployment of the current meters. Once the 
boat was anchored and stable, the bottom mounts were 
lifted overboard and then lowered to the seabed. A 
positional fix was taken prior to release of the deployment 
line from the bottom mount. This procedure worked well 
and was repeated at each deployment site. 


Preparing four ADCP bottom mounts 
for deployment. 

AIRPORT UPGRADES -KODIAK, AK 

RESULTS 

The four bottom mounts were recovered after a one month 
deployment. All meters recorded the full deployment. Two 
of the bottom mounts were redeployed for a second month. 
Final recovery of the two bottom mounts was scheduled for 
mid December during a period of winter storm activity. A 
short break in the inclement weather patterns enabled a 
quick recovery during one afternoon. Following retrieval of 
the bottom mounts both meters were downloaded and 
verified to contain the full deployment records. 

Client Reference 

Mr. Doug Jones 
Coastline Engineering 

(907) 338-6626 
dougjones@gci.net 
Project Timeframe 

September – December 2007