Took me 6 hours to clear a sandbar that should have been 2 - here's what happened

I kept getting told that running a cutterhead too slow was the way to go for heavy sand down in Plaquemine. Turned out the real problem was my ladder angle was way too steep, and I was just recirculating material back into the cut. Anyone else spent a whole shift fighting a problem that was just a simple setup thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

mary46216d ago

The real kicker for me was learning that my water pump placement was recirculating my own water. I had it set up on the same side as the discharge line, and that warm water kept getting sucked right back into the cutterhead. It creates this weird soup that just sits there instead of flowing away. Took me three shifts to realize I was basically washing the same hole over and over. Swapped it to the opposite side of the dredge and the sandbar started moving like it should have from the start. Simple trick but nobody talks about it.

the_tara16d ago

Damn that's honestly hilarious in hindsight but I bet you wanted to throw the whole dredge in the water at the time lol. At least now you've got a good story to tell over beers about the week you spent digging the same hole twice.