robinl90•5d agoProlific Poster

What's your worst day on the dredge been? Mine was last Tuesday on the Mississippi River.

Last Tuesday we were clearing a clog near mile marker 180 on the Mississippi and our cutterhead snagged an old anchor chain. Took us 6 hours to get free and we lost a whole shift of production. Some days everything goes smooth and you pull out 500 cubic yards easy, but other days it's nonstop problems. What's your best and worst single day ratio so far this season?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant.kevin5d ago

Jump into clearing that clog and yeah you're probably right about just getting paid to sit around but at least for me the downtime still eats into the bonus targets we're chasing. @alice_barnes35 hit it perfect about the towboat idiots too. We had one last month on the Illinois River that decided to overtake us right during a swing and I had to kill the cutterhead mid-cut. That's the kind of thing that messes up your whole bedding pattern and you end up spending the next hour just repositioning. Plus those percentage contracts are brutal when you lose a full shift, you feel it in your paycheck for weeks.

alice_barnes355d ago

Lost 6 hours to an anchor chain? That's a Tuesday. Try losing a whole day's production because some doofus on a towboat decided to cut across your swing circle and you had to shut down to avoid hitting him. Happened to me twice this season alone. The Mississippi is full of junk that gets snagged, that's part of the job. You make it sound like it's a tragedy but you probably still got paid for those 6 hours, right? Unless you're on a percentage contract, a lost shift just means you sit around and wait.