That sand barge timing issue near Baton Rouge last Tuesday nearly cost me my shift

I was running the cutterhead on a 20-inch pipeline job and the currents kept shoving the barge out of alignment. My deckhand yelled at me over the radio that we were about to snag the anchor line on a submerged log. I had to kill the pump and reset everything, lost a good 45 minutes of production. Has anyone else dealt with surprise debris shifting the bottom like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_ben6d ago

Ever try running a pipe diverter to redirect the flow around the barge?

blake_cooper6d ago

Have you noticed how this kind of thing happens all the time with water, like fixing one problem just shifts the trouble downstream? It's basically the same as when my neighbor @the_ben tried rerouting a gutter spout only to flood his basement stairs (classic unintended consequence). Pipe diverters work but you're really just choosing where to dump the headache.