Saw a dredge crew in Texas that ran a 24 hour shift non stop

I was down near Port Arthur last month visiting family and stopped to watch a crew working the Neches River channel. They had this old 12 inch cutterhead running for a full day straight with just two guys rotating sleep in the cab. One side says that kind of pace is the only way to hit deadlines on big projects. The other side says it's asking for a clogged pump or worse. What's your take on running extended shifts like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

quinn_king168d ago

Man I feel for those guys. My uncle worked dredge crews on the Mississippi back in the 90s and he told me about 18 hour shifts they pulled during flood season when the river was eating away at the levees. Running 24 hours straight with just two guys swapping out is brutal on the equipment and the people. The cutterhead bearings and hydraulic system on those old 12 inch units start to overheat bad after about 16 hours of continuous use in my experience watching them. I get that deadlines are tight especially with corps of engineers projects but a broken pump from a clog or a blown seal costs more time than stopping for a proper crew change. That kind of pace is just asking for a trip wire to snap or a hose to blow out at 2am when nobody is fully awake.

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sethmartinez8d ago

And it's not just dredge crews either man. I see this same stupid logic everywhere. My buddy works at a warehouse and they run the forklifts until the brakes start smoking because they need to hit some corporate metric. Then they end up spending two days replacing a transmission when a 15 minute break would've saved it. People treat equipment like it's magic and won't ever break if you just push hard enough. It's like driving your car with the oil light on because you're almost home. You might make it this time but eventually you're walking.