c/dredge-operators

A guy on the dock in Savannah made me rethink my whole ladder setup

I was working a small channel job last fall, using a basic aluminum ladder to get from the barge to the cutter head for a check. This old timer, Frank, who was running a clamshell bucket nearby, just shook his head and yelled over the engine noise, 'You trust that thing with your whole day on it?' He waved me over during a break and showed me his rig. He had a proper marine-grade ladder with non-slip treads and a custom bracket he welded himself to lock it to the barge rail. He said, 'I saw a kid take a swim in Mobile Bay because his ladder kicked out. Cost him a phone, his tools, and nearly his job. This bracket cost me twenty bucks in steel and an hour of time.' I went home that weekend and built my own version. It feels rock solid now. What's the one safety tweak you've seen that seemed small but made a huge difference?

PSA: Overheard a guy at the marina in Galveston say he never checks his cutter head teeth before a job.

He said he just 'lets the machine tell him' when they're worn, which seems like a good way to find out halfway through a channel cut.

The old 8-inch suction line on the 'Mudcat' finally gave out yesterday.

We were pulling sediment in the Port of Tacoma channel, nothing crazy, just a standard maintenance run. Heard a sound like a gunshot and the whole dredge shuddered. Shut it down and found a 3-foot split right along a weld seam that had been patched maybe twenty years ago. Back in the day, we'd have a spare section on the barge and weld it up ourselves in a few hours. Now, with the new safety rules, we had to call it in, wait for a certified marine welder, and the whole job got shut down for 36 hours. Makes you miss the times when you could just fix it and keep moving. Anyone else had a vintage line fail on them recently and had to deal with the new red tape?

Vent: The new guy on the barge in Mobile Bay last week kept calling the ladder a 'staircase' and it drove me nuts.

Spent 6 hours trying to clear a jammed cutterhead on the old Marion 7400.

Turns out a piece of old logging chain had wrapped around the main shaft. Anyone have a better way to spot that kind of debris before it gets sucked in?

That time a silt curtain tore on the Columbia River

We were doing a maintenance dredge near Longview when a section of the silt curtain gave way. Some guys say you should always double-anchor them, but others think that's overkill for a routine job. What's your standard procedure for curtain setup?

Talked to a retired operator at the diner in Port Townsend and he said something about old dredge cables that stuck with me.

Just realized I was running my cutterhead too fast in silt

An old timer on a job in Mobile Bay told me I was 'stirring soup, not moving dirt' with my pump speed. I dropped the RPMs by about 15% and the suction improved almost immediately. Anyone else find a sweet spot for different bottom materials?

Warning: I think the 'run it till it breaks' attitude on older cutter heads is asking for trouble.

We were on a channel job in Mobile Bay last spring, using a 30 year old dredge with a worn down cutter head. The foreman said it had 'plenty of life left' and to push it. Halfway through the shift, we hit a buried timber pile and the whole assembly seized, shearing two main bolts. We were dead in the water for 18 hours waiting on parts and a dive crew. I get not wanting to replace gear early, but that cost more in downtime than a scheduled rebuild. Has anyone else had a major failure from pushing worn equipment too far?

Everyone's using the wrong pump speed for fine silt in the Columbia River

I keep seeing crews run their pumps at max rpm trying to clear fine silt near Portland, but that just churns it up and makes the water cloudy for miles. We did a test run last fall, dropping to 60% speed, and our sediment capture rate went up by 30% while our fuel use dropped. Has anyone else tried a slower pump setting in similar conditions and seen better results?

Just realized I've logged 500 hours on the old 8-inch cutterhead dredge this season

Honestly, I only noticed because the maintenance log was full. Anyone else ever get surprised by a number like that?

Took the family to the harbor museum in Baltimore and saw something about old dredges

They had a whole section on the harbor's history and a model of a bucket ladder dredge from the 1920s. The thing that got me was the placard said it moved about 15 cubic yards an hour. I just stood there thinking about my cutter suction rig and how much the gear has changed. Has anyone else seen a museum piece that made you appreciate the new machines?

Saw a cutterhead setup on the Mississippi near St. Louis that looked like a total accident waiting to happen.

Had a cutterhead jam on the Columbia River that nearly bent the ladder

We were pulling up old logging debris and a massive root ball just locked everything up solid. Ever had to reverse the flow under pressure to clear something like that?

Hot take: I finally figured out why my suction line kept clogging on that muddy river job near Baton Rouge.

After watching a new guy on the crew run his cutter head at a steady 45 degrees instead of constantly adjusting it, I realized my own over-tinkering was packing the intake with silt.

My cutterhead chain snapped on a sandbar job near Galveston last Tuesday.

We were pulling hard against a tough clay layer when the whole rig shuddered and the pump went quiet. I had to dive down with a torch and a spare link in 15 feet of murky water to get it fixed, which took the better part of an afternoon. What's the most reliable brand for replacement chains you guys have found for heavy sediment work?

I finally tried a 4-inch suction hose versus the standard 6-inch on my cutterhead dredge for a tight canal job in Miami.

The smaller hose gave us way better control and less clogging on the debris, so what other situations have you guys found where downsizing the suction line actually helps?

An old hand told me my ladder setup on the cutterhead was asking for trouble

I was working a sandbar job on the Mississippi near St. Louis, and had my inspection ladder tied off to the suction pipe like I always do. A retired operator visiting the site said, 'That's a quick way to get a bent ladder and a bad day if the pipe shifts.' I moved the anchor point to the main frame the next morning. How do you guys secure your gear for quick checks?

Question about old school ladder vs. new suction line setup on a small cutterhead job

We were working a channel near Mobile and had to choose between the old steel ladder we've used for years and a newer, lighter suction line with a different intake. The old way took us three days to clear 200 feet of silt. The new setup, with a wider mouth and better flow, did the same job in a day and a half. It just moved material so much smoother with less clogging. Anyone else made a switch like that and been shocked by the time saved?

TIL a trick for clearing a stubborn suction line clog on a 12-inch cutterhead dredge in Mobile Bay

After fighting a partial blockage for two days that kept dropping our slurry density, we bypassed the usual high-pressure water lance and instead ran a short, controlled burst of compressed air backwards through the discharge valve, which popped the packed clay mass right out without damaging the impeller. Has anyone else had luck with air instead of water for certain types of clogs?

Heard a rumor about the new silt curtain rules for the Columbia River project

A guy from the Portland office said the new regs were just a scare and we could ignore them, but our foreman got a $5000 fine last month for a small spill. The inspectors are checking every single barge now, not just the big ones. Anyone else run into this on their site yet?

A lesson from an old hand on the Columbia River

Years back, I was running a small cutterhead dredge near Portland and kept fighting with the suction line clogging. An older operator named Ray, who was watching from the bank, just yelled over, 'Kid, you're digging too fast for that silt. Let the river do the work.' He came aboard and showed me how to read the water color and feel the pump vibration to find the right speed. I still think about that every time I'm in soft material. What's the best piece of simple, hands-on advice you ever got on the water?

Spotted a vintage 8-inch cutterhead dredge working the old channel near Port Townsend... looked like it was from the 60s and still running smooth.

Vent: I used to think you had to run the cutter head at full tilt all the time.

For the first 8 years on the Ohio River, I ran my cutter at max RPM on every bottom type. A guy from a Great Lakes outfit told me to drop it to 75% in heavy clay. I tried it on a job near Louisville last month. The machine shook less, we saved 15% on fuel, and the production numbers barely dipped. Now I adjust the speed based on the bucket sample. Anyone else find a sweet spot by slowing things down?

My boss told me to run the cutterhead at 12 rpm in that thick clay, and it worked

We were digging a channel near Mobile and the bucket was just clogging every pass. He said to drop the speed way down from our usual 18, and after an hour the whole operation smoothed out. Anyone have a different trick for heavy material?