On Dec. 14, tow vessel William Strait sank in 20 feet of water on the Mississippi River near Memphis after colliding with tow vessel Margaret Ann.

During the historic floods this month, the U.S. Coast Guard teamed up with Army Corps of Engineers to establish a virtual Aid to Navigation to mark the sunken workboat until the floodwaters recede enough for the wreck to be salvaged.

Research hydraulic engineer Michael Winkler works at the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory at the Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, and he said he was part of a team who went to Memphis to install the equipment for the project, equipment that was all developed in Vicksburg.

“We are working on expanding the technology,” he said. “Being able to track vessels that are moving on the inland waterways gives us a tremendous amount of benefit as far as improving safety, reliability and efficiency on the waterways.”

Broadcasted via Automatic Identification System, the virtual aid transmits a constant bearing and range that can be seen on Automatic Information System integrated electronic charting systems and radars.

“Not only do we receive information from the vessel, we can transmit information to a vessel, and that can come in varying forms,” Winkler said. “In the incident in Memphis, we began transmitting the location of the sunken vessel to all boats coming in and around that area so that they would know it was there before they ever arrived.”

The technology has developed through the years, but Winkler said they’ve been using the system for about eight years now. He said it’s used every day, but usually in more behind the scenes ways.

“That was one of the first times we had ever broadcast information,” he said. “We have used it during the flood. Most of the time it has been to provide accidents on the bridge here. We’ve done post-accident analysis on the accidents to try to understand what happened.”

The Army Corps of Engineers LOMA team included employees from Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory and the Information Technology Laboratory. Employees from the Army Corps of Engineers-Information Technology Operations and Security Departments, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District, Corps Marine Maintenance Facility at Ensely Engineer Yard, and the Coast Guard’s Research and Development Center also took part in the effort.

“The multiagency collaboration on e-Navigation and Automatic Information System began over 10 years ago, and in 17 years of federal service, it has be one of the most successful partnerships in which I have had the pleasure to work,” Winkler said “The effort to have a Virtual Aid to Navigation mark the sunken vessel went from general discussion to successful transmission in just over 48 hours.”

Most commercial vessels operating on U.S. waters are required to use Automatic Information System technology by March 1, 2016.

To access the increased navigation and marine safety information, the Coast Guard is encouraging all mariners to equip their vessels with electronic charting systems that display Automatic Information System transmissions.

Some of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Automatic Information System initiatives have included sending transmissions from a portable Automatic Information System unit to mark Aid to Navigation and hazards in a waterway in support of the “Digital Lightship Resiliency Project” on the Coast Guard Cutter Healy and using Automatic Information System to mark the abutments on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to improve bridge conspicuity.

“These initiatives will increase the reliability, availability, resiliency, and effectiveness of the Aid to Navigation system, while simultaneously improving Mariner Situational Awareness,” said Cmdr. John M. Stone, the chief of the Coast Guard Navigation Technology and Risk Management division.