Shoutout to the crew that helped me when my cutter head jammed on the Willamette

We hit a buried cable spool that wasn't on any map, and after three hours of trying to clear it ourselves, a guy from a passing barge radioed a trick with reverse flow and a pry bar. Anyone know a better way to check for that kind of hidden junk before you start cutting?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliver52314d ago

Damn, that's rough. We started running a side scan sonar unit before big cuts after hitting a car once. Still miss stuff sometimes though.

claire_fisher4114d ago

Oh man, @oliver523, a side scan is a solid tool for sure, but it's not a magic fix. It's great for finding big objects on the bottom, but it can totally miss things buried in the mud. You really need a mag and a good sub-bottom profiler to get the full picture. Even with all that, like you said, stuff gets missed, it's just the nature of the work.