I had to choose between a cutterhead and a trailing suction dredge for a canal job in Louisiana

Last month I was bidding on a silted-up canal near Baton Rouge and had to decide between my old cutterhead dredge or renting a trailing suction unit. The canal was only 8 feet deep but had 4 feet of heavy clay silt with some buried tree stumps. I went with the cutterhead because I knew it could handle the stumps better, but the material was thicker than I expected and I burned through two pump impellers in three days. The trailing suction would have been slower on the stumps but might have saved me on wear and tear. Has anyone else faced a similar choice on a tricky job?

3 comments

3 Comments

janahenderson18d ago

Man I had a buddy try that on a bayou job and his cutterhead threw a chain through the hull.

wendy_clark17d ago

That bayou job sounds like a nightmare. @janahenderson, did the chain snap from the cutterhead binding up in hard clay, or was it more of a fatigue failure from running too long between maintenance checks? I've seen guys on the gulf coast weld up their own chain guards that look like something out of a mad max movie, but I wonder if that actually helps or just gives a false sense of security. Was the crew able to patch the hole and keep the dredge going, or did it sink outright?

betty_shah18d ago

Oh man that's rough. I read a thing online where a guy was saying how cutterheads on those older rigs are basically ticking time bombs if you push them too hard in thick clay. Something about the torque just snapping chains like they're nothing. Heard about a crew that lost a whole dredge to a chain snapping and punching through the hull like butter. Makes you wonder if the newer hydraulic cutterheads are worth the extra money just for safety. Did your buddy get out okay?