Working the old cutterhead dredge on the Columbia River last spring

We were clearing a new channel near Longview when the main pump started losing prime every forty minutes. The foreman thought it was a seal, but I found a fist-sized chunk of river rock jammed in the suction line after three hours of checking. It must have gotten past the screen during a high-flow period. Ever had something unexpected get through your intake and cause a headache like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

finley_bennett281d ago

My buddy was running a dredge on the Mississippi near Vicksburg and they sucked up a whole car tire. It completely blocked the intake and they spent a full day trying to fish it out with grapples. The weird part was it still had the rim attached, no clue how it got down there.

cole_davis471d ago

Honestly @finley_bennett28, I read once that the Mississippi is basically a giant trash pile for old cars and farm equipment. Tbh a tire with the rim still on doesn't even surprise me that much.