Photographic documentary of the project to repair the North Jetty at the mouth of the Merrimack River (Salisbury, Newburyport, Plum Island). Photo essay by Mary Gage with additional photos by James Gage.
This is the 100th and final post for this blog. All the equipment has left and the jetty is once again under the firm control of the gulls, cormorants, and other wildlife. It didn't take them long to settle into their perch on new navigational signal.
The photo below was taken at the beginning of the construction just after the large CAT excavator was assembled. I opted not to posted then in an effort to avoid encouraging other people to wander around the construction site. At the time, the site had not completely fenced in.
I hope you have enjoyed following this blog as much I have enjoyed the experience of documenting this monumental project.
The job of setting up the new navigational light at the tip of the north jetty was the responsibility of the U.S. Coast Guard. The first day, coast guard members carried the metal poles for the structure of light out to the tip of the jetty. They seem unfazed by the waves crashing against the jetty and sending spray over them.
Two man job!
A little way action, no problem!
The concrete based was embedded into the tip of the jetty.
Returning from bringing out the poles.
DAY 2 - Assembling the Light
The team from US Coast Guard returned on another day to complete the assembly. The four corner posts were setup and then the cross members attached. Red triangular panels were added and light installed.
DAY 3 - Installing the Battery
Two coast guard members returned on another day to install the battery which powers the light.
To ride out the forecasted hurricane, the tugs went to the Newburyport harbor side of the Merrimack River. The white tug was tied up to a mooring and the blue tug tide up to the dock. This proved to be a rare opportunity to get some up close photos og the tugboats.
Preparing to Leave
After the hurricane went out to see, the tugboats were placed on top of one of the crane barges and preparing to leave.
The fun runabout tracked dump truck was packed up and left on a flatbed truck. I managed to get a video of it leaving the parking lot Salisbury Beach State Reservation.
The huge CAT 390F excavator arrived brand new on site in the late spring. It was trucked in different pieces on multiple flatbed trucks. It had to be disassembled to leave the site. By the time I had arrived, it was already partially taken part. I got photos of the arm and the counter weight being lifted onto a flatbed by the excavator itself. When it was originally assembled they used a wrecker truck crane to move the various parts.
The arm of excavator rests on the flatbed truck.
The counter-weight on the back of the excavator has been lowered to the ground (just visible on the right)
The back of the excavator without the counter-weight.
Preparing to pickup the counter-weight
Close-up of lift straps
As you can see the flatbed truck was moved and repositioned so the counter-weight could loaded.
The Army Corp was apparently unsatisfied with the additional work on
the tip of the South Jetty which is on the Plum Island side of the mouth of
the Merrimack River. Additional stone was added to the tip by one of the
cranes still on site. By this point the blue and white tug boats had
been taken out of the water and loaded onto a crane barge. A different
tug, presumably the one sent to move the crane barges from the river to
their next destination was used to maneuver the barge for this work. The
stones had been loaded directly onto the deck of the crane barge.
A short video of the crane placing stones on the tip of the South Jetty.
North Jetty is on the left, South Jetty on the right.
Another tug was used for this project because the other two had already been taken out of the water.
