That week everything went right on the Mississippi

Last spring I had a week on the Mississippi River where we pulled 14,000 cubic yards in five days. Usually we average around 1,800 a day, so that was almost double. The material was perfect loose sand with hardly any debris, and the cutterhead just ate through it without one clog. My swing winch operator and I got into a rhythm where we barely needed hand signals. Has anyone else hit a stretch of bottom that just made the whole operation sing?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavinm893d ago

That 14k in 5 days is wild numbers. I gotta ask - were you running a sidecaster or a clamshell for that sand? I've seen sidecasters just absolutely murder clean sand but if there was any clay mixed in they'd lock up solid. Also curious what kind of cutterhead you were running, like a straight spoke or something with grates? I'm guessing you were on the lower river somewhere, not the upper pools where you get buried rockpiles.

abbyc333d ago

Reminds me of a time on the Ohio where the whole system just clicked for a solid 10 hour shift.