That week on the Atchafalaya dredge nearly broke my back

We hit a buried log jam just south of Morgan City and the cutterhead locked up solid for 8 hours straight. Had to bring in a dive crew to clear it and lost a full day of production. Anyone else ever deal with hidden debris that just wrecks your schedule?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy_carr16d ago

And that dive crew cost alone probably wiped out any profit from that week, right? I've had similar nightmares with old sunken barges and submerged trees on the Mississippi. The worst part is when the debris is just shallow enough to catch the cutter but too deep for the regular cleanup crew to see from the surface. A buddy of mine swears by running a sonar sweep before starting a new stretch, but even that doesn't catch everything when the mud shifts overnight.

lee_butler16d ago

I get where you're coming from @wendy_carr but honestly that night's dive crew barely put a dent in the profit margin if you're running a decent operation. Most of the time the sonar sweep is just another delay that eats up just as much time as the debris would.