All in a Day's Work (Park 3) - Small Necessities

Okay ... now for the less glamorous side of construction site operations at the mouth of the Merrimack River. Normally at most job sites, the pump truck can drive up to the portable toilets to empty and clean them. This is not an option for the portable toilets on the barges. The solution is to swap them out. The excavator picks it up at the parking lot, lifting it with a cable attached to end of the arm, and drives down to the beach. The excavator drops off the clean unit, and pickups up the used one. Obviously, a certain amount of care needs to be taken not swing the toilets too much.

A construction worker than hooks a cable from the crane to the toilet and it gets lifted and swung over to the barge.

I set out to document all aspects of the repairs to Salisbury jetty. This is not the most exciting or interesting topic but it is part of the documentation. It is rather amusing to watch a half million dollar tractor being used to move a portable toilet around.

Small necessities ...

All in a Day's Work (Part 2) - Loading small stone onto the barge

A lot of focus has been on the large multi-ton blocks of being used to cap the outside of the Salisbury jetty. Tons of small and medium size has been truck in throughout July. This smaller size stone is being used to fill in between the large blocks and also build up the inner core of the jetty.

The small and medium size stones are handled differently than the large blocks. They are loaded into a large steel bucket with a handle and cross bar at one end.These buckets are filled at the beach staging area along the Merrimack River. Then four cables are attached to the bucket and it is lifted by the crane onto either the stone scowl or the crane barge itself.

In the video, the bucket has already been lifted off the beach and the crane operator is adjusting the height the bucket is suspended at before swinging it over to the stone scowl. I have noticed with both the buckets and the large stone blocks, the cranes only raised them high enough to clear everything on top of the barge. Next in the video, the second crane barge takes the bucket from the scowl and moves it to the deck of its own barge. As it is lowered to the deck, several men help to maneuver it into position. You can see them giving hand signals to the crane operator. 

Four steel cables are used to lift the stone bucket.

Two stone buckets site in the stone scowl.

The small to medium size stones are hauled in by dump truck.

All in a Day's Work (Part 1) - Loading Scowl with Large Stones

"All in a Day's Work" will be a five part photo & video essay highlighting the many different operations that occur during a day at the construction site. It will showcase the exciting activities as well as the less glamorous aspects.

The barge cranes equipped with large grapples grab to stones and swing them over the stone scowls. Grabbing this multi-ton stone blocks can be a bit tricky sometimes. As the video shows, the crane operator has to make multiple attempts before he gets a firm grip on some of these stones. He repositions the grapple on the boulder until he can lift the stone without dropping. Sometimes the excavator needs to reposition the stone for the crane operator. Once crane grabs the stone, it is lifted and swung over to scowl. Care is taken not to get the boulder swinging while moving it.

The three crane barges lined up along the beach staging area.

One of the grapples used to pickup large stones with.

The beach staging area is covered with large 10 to 19 ton stone blocks.

Stones lined up in the stone scowl.

Newburyport Birthplace of the U.S. Coast Guard

Newburyport's Yankee Homecoming celebration (July 26-August 2, 2015) will highlight the 225th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Coast Guard and 100th anniversary of the service being called the "Coast Guard." According to the Yankee Homecoming website:

"On August 4, 2015 the US Coast Guard will celebrate their 225th birthday. This year is special as this is the 100th anniversary of the Coast Guard name, previously known as the Revenue Cutter Service. The US Coast Guard officially began August 4, 1790 when the Tariff Act authorized the building of 10 cutter ships used to enforce the tariff laws. The first of these ships to be commissioned and operated was the Massachusetts which was built in 1791 by the Currier Shipyard in Newburyport. This was the beginning of our history with the Coast Guard which continued with the building of the Custom House in 1835, being named birthplace of the Coast Guard in 1965 by President Johnson, and being name an official coast guard city in 2012."

In celebration of the anniversary I am posting this video of a Coast Guard boat on patrol passing by the north jetty construction site.

Two Aerial Videos of the Salisbury Jetty Construction Site

I thought everyone might enjoy a different "perspective" on the construction site.I found two videos taken from cameras mounted on drones on Youtube. They offer a great top down view of the construction site. The first one was produced by Bright Sky Aerial Photography. It was taken in early June. At this point, only the beginning section of jetty between the beach and the groin had been repaired. Two cranes and three excavators are on site. You will also notice the parking lot is empty. June was on the cooler side this year, and there were very few beach goers at the time.

I recommend clicking on the full screen mode (control on far right) for the best viewing experience.

The second aerial video was produce by UAVLook. It was taken a couple weeks earlier (mid-May ) than the first video. The concrete base for the inner navigational aid tower is still present. It had been removed by the time the other video was taken. In the beginning of the video you can see the excavator loading stones into the bucket of the front end loader. This approach to moving the stones around the site has since been abandoned.

Note: You will have close the popup advertising at the beginning of this video.

Two Excavators Working on the Outer Jetty

Having observed the Salisbury jetty repairs for a number of weeks now, I am deeply impressed with the skill of the crane and tractor operators, tug boat captains, and the rest of the construction crew. This is a very equipment intensive operation moving thousands of tons of stone. There is a high level of cooperation between everyone. Their safety depends on it. This video shows the first excavator bringing stones dropped onto the jetty by the crane out to a second excavator.  The second excavator moves the stone further out on the jetty. Towards the end of the video, the second excavator places the stone on the top edge of the jetty. The stone is rocking back & forth and the excavator operator gently uses the bottom of the claw to stop the rocking motion to prevent it from falling over. The fine control they have with these huge machines is something to watch.

Crane to Excavator on the Jetty

Once the stone scowl is loaded with stones, the scowl and crane barge are moved from the beach staging area out to the jetty. This video shows the white crane unloading the stones onto the Salisbury jetty. An excavator with a claw waits for the crane to deliver the stone and then grabs it. The excavator moves the stone block to pile of stones further out on the jetty. This pile is being used by a second excavator to repair the jetty. You will notice that several black rubber mats are stacked up on the barge. The mats areused on top of the jetty to create a road surface for the excavators to work on. The video was taken from across the Merrimack River on the north end of Plum Island.

From Truck to Barge

This video illustrates the process of moving the stones from flatbed trucks into the stone scowls used to move the stones out to the Salisbury jetty. When the flatbed trucks arrived they backed out onto the beach. An excavator carefully removes the stones from the truck. Care needs to be taken to get a firm grip on the stone so it will not drop and damage the truck. As the rest of the video shows, dropped stones is a common problem. It doesn't really matter around the rest of construction site, the stone will end up on the sand.

The stones are initially placed in a pile near the trucks. They are subsequently moved by excavator to a stockpile staging area. From there they moved down to the beach along the Merrimack River where a crane picks them up and loads them into a scowl (i.e. barge).

Stone blocks in the stone scowl (barge)

Stockpiled stones waiting to be moved to the beach to be loaded on to the scowl.

A wider view showing the large amount of stone stockpiled.

The Three Cranes

There are currently three cranes working on the jetty: a red crane, a large red crane, and a crane with white crane mast. Each crane has its own stone transport barge. The transport barge is roped to the crane barge and both are moved together. Each pair of barges (crane & transport) is moved between the jetty and the stone loading area on the beach by two tug boats. The cranes off load their stone cargo onto the top of jetty where the excavators move them blocks into their final position.

 

This is the larger of the two red mast cranes. It has a wider base and treads, and a large 

counter-weight on the rear. It is use amongst others jobs to lift the excavators on and off 

the barges onto the jetty.

The white masted crane.

The smaller of the two red cranes.

All three cranes at work.

Excavator Moving Stone Between Piles

Beginning in late June, stone deliveries have really ramped up. A large amount of stone is being stored on the beach staging area. When the stone arrives on the truck, it is initially placed in the pile nearest the delivery area. The stone is subsequently moved to a second pile. From there it is moved to the edge of the Merrimack River for loading onto the crane barges. This is a sequence of still photos showing the stone blocks being moved between the two piles.

June 28 2015 Coastal Storm

A coastal storm with winds out of the northeast dump a lot of rain and kicked up some high surf. I traveled out to north end of Plum Island during the storm hoping to get some photos of the waves crashing over the jetty. As the photos show, a dense fog bank obscured much of the jetty. I tried to use an umbrella to protect the camera from the wind driven rain but all it did was become a big sail!

All of the barges had been brought into the beach area and anchored to protect them against the strong winds and high surf. I went back the next day and got some video of the waves breaking over the Salisbury jetty. As you can see from the video, the waves and high tide cover the broken sections of the jetty. The repaired sections are several feet above the high tide mark.

The day after the storm ...

 

 

Site as Viewed From Plum Island

As mentioned in the previous post, you can get a good view of the Salisbury jetty construction from the the northern tip of Plum Island. There are a limited number of free parking spaces. If those are filled up, there is a paid parking lot. I haven't walked out to the south jetty yet to get photos but you can get good views from the beach along the Merrimack River.

A third crane and third stone transport barge are now working at the site. It easily recognized by its white crane mast.

There are two red cranes. This is the smaller of the two. It is anchored along the beach near the stone pile ready to load more stone on to the transport barge.

This is the larger of the two red cranes. In addition to loading stone onto the barge, it also used to lift the excavators onto a barge so they can be move to the outer section of the jetty. I will have a video of this in a future post.

One of two tugboats which move the barges between the beach staging area and the jetty.

Large boulders are placed on the rubber mats to keep them from washing away.

Two excavators parked on the jetty for the weekend.

The "No Wake" zone has been extended to include the mouth of the Merrimack. The double fine for construction sites applies along this stretch. The Newburyport Daily News reports the Harbormaster will be enforcing it.

A couple enjoy the nice weather on the beach.

Summer Visitors to Salisbury & Plum Island

The construction on the Salisbury jetty has only had a minor impact on the summer visitors boating in the Merrimack River, visiting Salisbury Beach State Reservation, or fishing off the north end of Plum Island. There had been some concerns before construction began, that summer beach goers and tourists would go elsewhere along the coastline. On the recent hot days, the main beach parking lot at the state reservation has been nearly full. The trucks hauling stones in from a quarry in Rhode Island have had to share the reservation road with car loads of beach goers.

The north end of Plum Island along the Merrimack River is great place for a picnic on the beach. It is rarely crowded because there is no swimming along this stretch of beach due to strong currents. It is a great place to get a view of construction  on the jetty.

A sail boat navigates the channel heading into Newburyport Harbor.

On a clear day, you can see the Isles of Shoals in the distance. (Click on the photo to enlarge it)

The mouth of the Merrimack River can be busy on some days with sail and power boat traffic.

This is favorite location for striped bass fisherman. they setup of their poles in standings and enjoy the day in their beach chairs as they hope to catch "stripers" for dinner.

A couple takes advantage of the empty lifeguard stand to get a nice view.

At the Salisbury Beach State Reservation, beach goers setup for the day outside of 

the construction area.

A good part of the main parking lot remains open while construction is ongoing.

Excavators Working in the Water (Almost)

This video was shot at high tide. The ocean is coming up nearly to the top of the broken down section of the jetty. One of excavators is working on this section. The excavator dips the claw into the water to see how far down the rocks are. Once the operator determines the depth, an appropriate size block is chosen and place in that location.

The second excavator is makings its way further out on the jetty. It stops to made adjust to the rubber mats placed on top of then jetty to create stable surface for the tractors to travel over. The construction crew takes care to create as safe a working environment as possible to protect themselves and the equipment.

"Dancing Tractors"

There are usual two or three excavators working out on the Salisbury jetty. What happens when one excavator needs to pass the other on top of the jetty? One of the excavators pulls off onto the short spur jetty wall to let the other pass. This video captures the moment. I couldn't resist titling this one "dancing tractors".