Fajardo Artificial Reef Design and Construction – Emergia, Puerto Rico

Two segments of the SAm-1 Submarine Fiber-Optic Telecommunications Cable System were installed on the north coast of Puerto Rico at Isla Verde Beach. The marine installation of SAm-1 in Puerto Rico temporarily impacted portions of bottom communities containing hard coral, sponges and gorgonians. As a special condition to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit, 1,033 square feet of artificial reef was required to be constructed to compensate for the impacted area. The Louis Berger Group, Inc. (Berger) was contracted by Emergia, a telecom company, to complete this design/build, compensatory mitigation project.

Prior to deployment, a team of Berger marine scientists and archaeologists conducted an underwater biological investigation and a Phase 1A archaeological survey of two potential deployment sites located in approximately 70 feet of water off the coast of northeast Puerto Rico. Based on the lack of bottom relief and hard bottom habitat, the absence of archaeological resources, and the proximity of one site to adjacent artificial reefs, Berger, in coordination with the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources (DNER), determined that the artificial reef would be centrally deployed approximately five nautical miles due east offshore Fajardo, Puerto Rico in Bajo Blake.  Bajo Blake also lies within the DNER-administered La Cordillera Natural Reserve.

A total of 12 concrete modules were designed and constructed following DNER-approved specifications and deployed at the site in accordance with the final National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)/USACE-approved mitigation plan and to accommodate the conditions of the USACE permit. The sea floor within the project area consists of unconsolidated sediments, silt and biogenic sand. The reef was designed to provide low relief structures (approximately four feet high) to promote benthic colonization and biodiversity and increase utilization of the habitat by various pelagic fish. 

Berger managed all aspects of the design/build operations for the artificial reef, provided on-site coordination and divers during deployment operations, successfully prepared and obtained all necessary permits/approvals, notified USACE, NOAA, NMFS, Caribbean Fisheries Management Council, U.S. Coast Guard, and local marinas of deployment activities, and also notified the NOAA Nautical Data Branch of the final placement coordinates in order to update nautical charts. Berger also conducted the baseline/post-deployment monitoring of the artificial reef using still photography and underwater video.