This is the current job we are on for the FAA. There are two reefs that are exposed at the 2' tide level in the middle of the float plane facility. Ones about 80' X 220' the other's about 40' X 80'. They have to be removed to the -6' tide elevation to make sure float planes don't hit them. Someone saw a Stellar Eider which is on the endangered species list in the area one time so we can't drill and shoot it so we have to chip the whole thing off. The water is deep on each side of the reef so were windrowing it into deep water. Were supposed to stop a half mile from the job everytime we approach and check for Eiders with a spotting scope. If there anywhere to be seen we have to leave the area until their gone. If one shows up while we are working we have to cease operations at once and leave the area. We've been on the job about a month and I haven't seen one, course there wasn't a picture of what they look like in the set of plans I'm working off of.:thumbsup
I did say marine contractor. A few more.
Man, thats gotta be a cool job. I thought I liked my job but I hate it now after looking at those pics. Thanks for posting them. :thumbsup
Awesome pics The one with the dozer sitting in the background, I don't see any silt fence. :nono
Rock in the runway re. Actually there is a silt curtain in the water, funny thing though there's no requirement to have one around the barge while dredging. I never really understood this but I wasn't about to ask why!
Great pics! Thanks. :thumbsup Is the seaplane base associated with the actual airport, or is this an entirely separate facility? Are there obstruction markings on the crane? But it's okay to have airplanes landing and taking off around them? That makes sense... And here's what they look like. (From( http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/hunting/news/story?page=g_enc_stellars_eider ):
great pictures and equipment. that must cost a lot of money to do that project. thansk
Fantastic post! Thanks for sharing. What model is the dozer on the banks? I looks like a 9L or a 10. - Christopher
We wouldn't beable to get away with that here on the West Coast of B.C. the enviromentalists don't want you disturbing the sea life. I don't know how effective a excavator with a breaker is working off of a barge. Must loose allot of the hitting force. That clam bucket is a decent size the one dad has isn't that big we don't use it anymore it doesn't help the crane doesn't work anymore. I imagine the total job was well over 20 grand to have that reef lowered. The crane and clam bucket is being charged out at 1000 dollars a hour then the excavator and hammer is 200-300 per hour. Did they chain the excavator down to the barge ? Its not a good feeling when you start sliding to the edge Working on barges and on the water is just part of daily life where I work and live.
Not so fast, Its not all sun, fun, and games! Besides, you get to drive a train! Woooo Woooo!
You shoulda shown them first so I didn't get my hopes up but whats a job without the challenges........thats what makes it fun :yup . The train is a childhood dream.....
Digger, The float plane facility is seperate from the city airport, The crane boom is only 120' so only requires 1 red light on the tip visible 360 degrees. The barge has 1 anchor light on each end. Your trying to use common sense with the Eider and plane situation, knock it off! Also, THANKS!!! Now when I tell em I didn't know it was an eider, I'm lying King, The entire job is 3.4 million. It includes the reef removal, 46,000 yards of rock removed on the uplands for plane haul out. A haul out ramp and two new 6 plane floats. Constsite, The dozer is a D9L, We subbed the uplands rock removal to another contractor because we had nowhere to go with it. We deal mainly with marine and this co. needs the rock for a job he already has so the numbers were right for us both. The hoe in the photo is a brand new 330 Cat he just got. Nice machine. Ford, Its getting harder and harder to do stuff like this around here. Its taken them a while but their catching up to us. The hammer has air going to it at all times when its under water to keep water out of it. It has the same impact as it does on land. Its different to operate though, not being able to see what your chipping. Try to establish a pattern and stick with it. I welded the pipe to it so you could see if it is straight up and down. The clam bucket is a 4 yarder struck. I believe the reef removal part of the bid was around $350,000.00 Thanks for all the compliments.
I'd have expected somthing more, considering your proximity to actual aircraft operations. They did some highway work 1/2 mile or more away from the end of one of PIT's runways last year, and even the smaller cranes were marked. (I'm going to avoid saying the name of that aircraft type too...we've seen what happens when the fellows get any sort of stimulation.) Yeah. Common sense isn't so common, is it? If you ever actually see one, PM me and I'll change the pic, so you have plausible deniability. I'm sure I can Google up a picture of a Spotted Owl...
Are there flying "hoo-hoo's" now? Or maybe it's "cooter's"? That sounds like it could be a plane name.:yup "Cooter 7-5-7, you're cleared for take-off........................over."
I have been watching Worlds Deadliest Catch on Discovery sure gets cold and nasty on the coast of Alaska I imagine there is heaters in the Link Belt to keep the brakes and frictions from freezing up. Its been awhile since I got to run a old conventional crane dads old P&H you needed to be a octopus pumping levers to get the hydraulic pressure up to get the frictions to grab.
lashlander, thansk for the info, it is quite the job and keep the pictures coming. nice lanes too, we only have them in the summer for flying to the lodges around here.they keep you awake when they are fully loaded and trying to get some air, LOL thansk
Digger, I think one of the reasons the crane doesn't require more lighting is the facility has no lighting. The planes are required to be on the water by twilight. Sometimes they really push it. It reminds me of growing up in southern Idaho, you get a drivers license when you are 14 years old but its only good for daylight hours. There were times I had to do over 100 MPH to get home before dark! :yup Here's common sense for you. We were in Whittier a couple years ago to put in a harbor. Another outfit was dredging the area and was required to have a silt curtain that was 1400' long. They go for about $125.00 per foot. The dredging permit from the Army Corp also came with an at sea discharge permit. The company would load their dump barge, open the curtain to let the dump barge out. Then close the curtain and about a 100 yards outside the curtain start dumping the barge. We always laughed, at least the silt from the barge wasn't getting back into the dredging area. Ford, the crane has a pretty tight house on it so it requires no other heaters. The engine warms it up pretty fast. When your working it hard you have to open the doors to cool it down. Running a clam bucket is a little different. I've always said you have to run both feet and all three hands. King, the lakes freeze around here but the salt water stays open, they operate year around. Both the planes in the pics are Dehaviland Beavers. The Beavers , I think were only manufactured in 62 and 63. They are a work horse.
The old Beaver planes were made longer than that. They are a good plane we have them flying in and out of the harbour I live in. I think there is a company now making a new version of the beaver. The beaver was the plane designed for the West Coast it pretty much set the benchmark for sea planes.
You're correct, the Beaver was in production from1949 to 1967. They produced 1657 of them. Now I have to go figure out why I thought that!
what can a boy that grew up in the DESERT say??? WOW...COLD!!!!!!!!!!!! real neat pics ..thanks for real interesting post...
Round two! The new floats finally came in yesterday. The weathers been horrible and the bay is iced over about 5 inches. Tug had a tough time to get in. Worked til midnight to get them unloaded. The anchor chain is the last pic. 7800' of it.
Good follow up Lash. :thumbsup The vehicles on top of the containers made me take a second look. What are the floats for? And is that yalls barge? I think it would be pretty cool to own a barge........although I don't know what I would do with it if I had one. :beatsme
excellent pictures, you don't realize how big it is until you see the cars up top. thansk
Its amazing how they put those trucks on top of the load like that We have had a barge come into the familly freight terminal that was from the US heading to Alaska to pick up some old equipment. It was amazing what they had on the barge everything including the kitchen sink. The barge didn't have a ramp on it so the crane on the barge swung the portables into place. What is the black stuff that is sitting on the crates ? Lots of money in anchor chain sitting there
I thought the container ships I longshore part time were bad,I couldn't imagine loading that picker truck 2 containers high.
That barge isn't even fully loaded it can go even farther down into the water and have 2' of freeboard left. It can get pretty snotty once you get past the end of Vancouver island up towards the Queen Charllotte strait. I know quite a few people that work in the towboat industry and the stories of the seas you can see on the North Coast. Your down below deck in the bunks bungee corded in so you don't roll out when the tug is rolling in the seas. When your going through the 20 foot swells the tug is in the bottom of the swell and the barge is above on the crest of the swell. If you guys watch the Dangerous Catch on Discovery channel you can see what kinds of sea's happens on the open parts of the West Coast.
Our Boats I'd love to see a barge like that being loaded,We have it easy at our port with our two 40 Ton container cranes and our ships are a lad larger lol. Pic of the 2 cranes and a Tropical container ship on the west side.
Stacked up like Matchboxes! Thanks for sharing the pics.
The floats are the new ramps for the floatplane facility. The barge is one of the freight companies that haul freight here. Its 335' X 85' our barge is 160' X 50'. Now I've got to try to get all those floats on our barge to haul to the job. Those are the ramps they park the float planes on. When there in the water they float with 12" of free board on the flat, the bottom of the ramps will be about 3" under water. Nice pick. Where is that ship headed? How big is it? Horizon lines hauls into here with D7s. They're 750'ers. I've gotten called to come down and crane containers that are hanging over the side from hitting big storms so they can get to the dock. Every now and then the barge line that comes in here will come in with a stack of containers on top of one of their forklifts. Its a mess. Got started loading onto our barge today. I'm running out of room fast.
sweet pics:thumbsup ,wish my job was cool like that sometimes
I never seen something like that used for float planes I imagine that is for protection from being damaged from the ice. It sure looks like a expensive job :yup
The floats are made of Douglas Fir gluelams. The creosote treating makes them black.
You guys are still allowed to use creosote in the US ? Down here we are not allowed to use creosote pilings or wood for marine construction its all steel pilings now. If those floats are made out of wood thats amazing how they bend like a banana Myself I don't like working with creosote timber the skin burns hurt
It getting harder and harder to use it. Anything that is submerged in the water is still okay. They haven't figured out anything better. If you use sun screen with a protection factor of 45 of better it helps with the burns. The main beams on the floats are 8" by 24", there made out of 2 by 8s. They smear em with glue then put em in a press and bend em. When their set they hold their shape. Almost all lumber over a 20' 12 by 12 is a gluelam any more. Trees big enough for anything larger are to hard to come by. Most wood now is second and third growth. Its garbage wood. We recieve 6 by 6es with a 1/4twist in 12'. I also think we get a little of the "Send it to Alaska, they won't send it back" stuff going on to. Most of the time their right.
Thanks for the tip on the sunscreen The days are gone when you could get old growth wood to make beams out of. Back in the early 80s dad used to cut large beams on his mobile dimensional sawmill back then the fir logs were 40 inches plus in diameter. All the support beams in my parents house along with all the 2x6s and 2x10s were cut on dads mill. You don't see wood like that anymore. We also get the same mentality send it to them they won't send it back because it costs quite abit of money sending it back.
yes we have the same problem too, we get the crap sent up here because we won't ship it back. we get out dated milk and produce too, my kids always thought banannas were brown, LOL oh the joys of living at the end of the world, LOL will need more pictures of the loat plane docks. thansk
:Banghead :Banghead Dont know how but I missed this thread.:beatsme Thanks you for sharing Lash.
Had to break a little ice today to move the barge up the dock, Finished loading the floats. Its tight, but got all the big ones on. What a difference in weather from morning til afternoon.
That first picture looks like its awfully cold It looks like you had just enough deck space to get it all on with just enough room for the crane to swing. Like they say if there is a will there is a way
nice pics
very nice pictures:notworthy it`s look a tough job
I have spend most of my life around the water and doing similar things Lashlander does in Alaska. Working around barges and cranes and marine construction is a good job just need to pay attention to what your doing. Working in Alaska you need to be even more carefull if you fall in you have a greater chance of hypathermia. You also need to be agile on your feet because your jumping and stepping onto moving things. Walking a set of boom sticks tests your agility think of it of a floating tight rope that bounces up and down.
Great pics! You guys must be tough Lashlander! Doesn't look like the most inviting of conditions!
I have a stupid question..When you are loading heavy items on the barge, is there much movement with the barge itself? To me what you do would be much more difficult compared to crane work on dry land. A shift in the barge while swinging to the left or right could make it interesting at times? My hat is off to you ..Great pics by the way!
I know on the container ship its bad,your lashing down the containers at the end of one row on the isolated piller on the side of the ship as the container crane is slamming them down on the other end of the isle. Your on the side of the ship watching the warf go up and down with the wind blowing,you just gotta love it.
Lashlander has a good sized barge so the roll shouldn't be that bad but farther you boom down with the crane more the barge will roll. You get some weight on the one side of the barge it helps the roll. Conventional cranes are nicer to work with on a barge because you can let the brake go and drop the load if you need to. I forget how many ton Lash said that crane was but when its on the barge it has only half of the lifting power because you will roll the barge. When we had fish farms here guy was running a hydraulic crane that wasn't lashed down to the barge it pulled it over guy drown. Another thing that happened was a conventional crawler on a barge pulling concrete anchors stuck in the mud on the bottom. The barge listed right over then the 1 1/4 poly let go and the boom flopped backwards over the crane. Working a crane on a barge is hard on the swing gear of the crane it affects all cranes right down to hiabs used on landing crafts.
I don't think its a stupid question. Lot of guys don't think about that aspect of working on the water. Our crane is a 150 ton. The counter weight weighs 45 ton. When it swings over the side with no load it will list the barge backwards a little over a foot. You have to keep in mind that will boom it up. When you make a heavy pic it will list it toward the pic. Sometimes up to 3 or 4 feet. Then you have to swing it uphill to the center of the barge, which will bring your load to you. Depending where on the barge your putting it or on another barge you have to be ready if you go over center because it will list the other way and the load will head down hill. This will send your load away from you. You have to be ready to counter swing, its gonna take off on you. Add a little wind and a few waves and it does get interesting at times. Ford pretty much summed it up, however I've been working on the water for 18 years and I've never sold a load. I've never put any of my operators in a position so they had to sell one either. Anyway thanks for the replies. The tug came and took us into the basin. Had to make about 5 runs through the ice to break it up so he could get us out. The tide rips though the basin at about 3 knots so it doesn't freeze. Weather finally broke, got up to 39 degrees today. Got one float unloaded and put together.
Man, you gotta think of all that at the same time. I guess after 18 yrs. it just comes naturally. Do you ever use different weights of counterweights or do you stick with the 45 ton? How thick was the ice the tug had to bust? I would of thought the barge would break it as it moves through. :beatsme Great pics by the way.
Those floats look good they have a nice low freeboard on them. It must make it easier for the planes to dock beside them and easier for the passengers to get out. It makes me wonder why the seaplane terminal in my area doesn't use a floats like that seaplanes also use the gov't docks which are high floaters. Seeing the pictures with the ice makes me glad I live on a warmer and wetter part of the coastal west coast
The counterweight is set up to remove half of it. I've never done it though. I want all the lead I can get. Where it hadn't been disturbed it was pushing 8", he wanted to take us on his hip rather than make up his towline so he needed to break it up alittle for control.
I guess with the load you had on the barge it was too tall to see over to push. One thing we never have to deal with is ice and I imagine that makes things a little more tricky. Global warming will eventually change the cold weather in Alaska you will have palm trees and water so warm you could swim all year round
Weather has been so nasty, haven't got much done. The wind really messes with us. It was calm yesterday and got started laying out all the anchor gear. The uplands is coming along too.
The wind must be blowing really hard to need such a big anchor for such a little boat. :cool2 Is there a time frame you are working in or is it just when it is finished? I ask because it seems the weather isn't always on your side so it would seem to be hard to keep a schedule. :beatsme
Thats funny! The skiff is just pulling on the anchor to keep it from winding the chain up. We have until the 30th of June to get done. We need to finish it because we have other stuff coming up.
Lashlander, I don't know who has the worst job you or Squizzy having to look at those views all day. I know it's gotta be rough.... but sombody has to do it right? I really enjoy these post it's kinda like going on a cruise without ever leaving home.:thumbsup
Another Barge loaded with good stuff! This barge brought the ramp panels for the plane haul out a few days ago. You can tell its spring. The barges are coming up pretty loaded. After offloading Kodiaks freight she set sail for Dutch Harbor.
Haulout Ramp Working on the Haulout installation! The last pic shows all the floats installed.
This stuff is so interesting and many of us would never get to see the things you take for granted. Imagine stacking a barge like that for shipping but why not?We just don't think about it because we don't confront such things.Thanks again for sharing such interesting things against a great backdrop.Ron G
once again lashlander excellent pictures, you know that is big when a high track cat looks so small. LOL thansk
do those trucks just sit there or do they get chained to the top of the container
The truck is lashed down to the flat they are on with 1/2" long link chain, tightened with 7/8" turnbuckles. Then they stack the containers with cones between them to keep them from sliding on each other. Then each container is crossed chained to the deck of the barge on each end. They use 30" bars to tighten the chains. On our barge I tell my guys to tighten em til they smoke and then take em a quarter of a turn. Its a lot of hard work to lash down the barges. Even after all that they come in once in a while with whole stacks of containers missing or tipped over on deck. One came in a couple years ago with a 5 high stack on reefers tipped over on one of their forklifts. I had to take our crane down to pick them off of it. Scored some killer seafood from it though.
I thought global warming and rising sea levels would take care of a rock problem like this.
Global Warming is bs. Just like Global Cooling was in the 60's and 70's. I remember teachers saying glaciers would begin creeping south in my life time :/ you pump enough money into something ie research, everyones gonna start looking for ways to answer your question the way you want. ------ This thread has some amazing pictures. great looking job you guys are doing up there.
The last two winters here have been the worst in the nineteen years I've lived here. Ihaven't seen a lot of it. Thanks! I appreciate all the great comments.
lashlander, i posted your picture and a link here on the barge on the cat BB. lots of excellent comments. keep them pictures coming. thansk Bald KoO
What Forum?
ACME bb for antique cats not wile-e-coyote and the road runner show, LOL thansk
This ones a wrap! Had a redesign on the haulout ramp floats so they got delayed a little. :Banghead Anyway they finally showed so got them installed. The uplands work got done and paved last week. Eveyone seems to be happy, even the pilots.:thumbsup
The last of em!
Wow that look's like a lot of work, but it sure did come out great
wow that looks good, lots of work has been done. by the look of the floating dock, how high does the water go up and down???? thansk
Hey KoO, hows it going. Been wondering where you been. There is about 12' of tide change in this area. On the backside of the Island in Larsen Bay where we worked on the Cannery dock there is 22' of tide.If you get up in Cook Inlet by Anchorage they get about 40' of tide change. The only place they have bigger tides is The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.
The Bay of Fundy is between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and yeah its a PITA to work with.We have to load a container ship start to finish in 12 hours due to the tides.