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That time the suction line clogged with a mattress in the Miami River
We were clearing a channel near the Port of Miami when the pump pressure spiked and the whole rig shuddered. The monitor showed a full blockage, and after we pulled the line, we found a king-size mattress wrapped around the cutterhead. Took the crew three hours to cut it free with knives and a sawzall. Anyone else had to deal with weird trash like that?
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the_miles6mo ago
I used to think that was rare until we pulled a whole couch out of our dredge.
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noah8385mo ago
Yo did you guys see that news story from a couple years back about the dredge in New York that pulled up a whole shopping cart? I remember reading it on some engineering forum and thinking it was bad but a mattress is way worse. That thing is basically a giant sponge full of water and mud so I can only imagine how heavy it got. I bet the sawzall went through a dozen blades before you made a dent in it. Fishing nets are nasty too because they just keep tangling tighter but a mattress has got to be a solid 2 on the weirdness scale.
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jordant696mo ago
Man, that's wild. We had a huge tangle of fishing nets once. Honestly, just getting in there with some good hook knives and a lot of patience was the only thing that worked for us.
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