Saw a dredge working the Mississippi near St. Louis with a wild setup

I was driving past the riverfront last month and spotted a cutter suction dredge that had its ladder angled way steeper than I've ever seen. The operator told me they were trying to cut through a really hard clay layer about 15 feet down. Some guys I talked to later said that's the only way to get through that stuff, but others think you just burn through wear parts too fast. What's your take on using a steep angle for tough material?

3 comments

3 Comments

miller.paul1d ago

Ever try to stab a shovel straight down into hard dirt? That's basically what @ray210's buddy did, and yeah, you'll wreck the blade but sometimes it's the only way.

dixon.nathan3d ago

Read an article a while back about a crew in Louisiana doing the same thing. They said the steep angle lets the cutter head put more direct force into the hard layer, kind of like chipping away at it. The trade off is absolutely more wear on the teeth and the ladder bushings, no question. But if the material is that stubborn, sometimes you just have to accept the cost and downtime for parts. It's a brute force method, but it gets the job done when other setups just bounce off.

ray2103d ago

Heard a similar story from a buddy who dredges up north. His crew hit a layer of cemented gravel that just laughed at their normal setup. They cranked the ladder to almost vertical, basically stabbing at it. They chewed through a set of teeth in half a shift, but it was the only way to break through that crap.