Being Called Back into Service

In the last video post, only two crane barges were left on site, and both were anchored in Merrimack River waiting to leave. The next thing I know, one the crane barges has been brought back to the Salisbury, and flatbed trucks start arriving with large boulders. An excavator unloads the trucks and later grabs the stones and dumps them over the concrete seawall. A second excavator with a bucket moves them to the barge. The crane then lifts them onto the crane barge itself. All the stone scowls had already been shipped our. I initially thought that they maybe weighing the barge down to weather out the predicted hurricane. About a week and half later I found them unloading the stone at the tip of the south jetty. The high seas kicked up by the off shore hurricane caused some delays. Apparently, the Army Corp was not satisfied with the additional work on the south jetty and required more stones.

 

Truck load of stone arrives

 

Excavators pushes a bucket for a bobcat tractor out of the way.

Close-up showing the size of the rocks

 

Crane loading stone onto the barge

Stone stored on the crane barge deck.

Stone Impressions

 The weight of the massive multi-ton stone blocks on the beach left the sand covered in divets like a golf ball.

This photo shows the beach along the Merrimack River smoothed out during the final cleanup of the construction site.

Removing Excess Stone & Dirt (Trucking Out)

Over the summer the construction crew had thousands of tons of stone of all different sizes trucked and dumped on the beach. Mixed in with the deliveries of small and medium stone which arrived by dump truck was dirt, sand, and stone dust. The process of moving the stones around caused stone chips to break off. All of this debris need to cleanup and hauled off. Dump truck after dump truck arrived to be filled up by an excavator with this debris. The debris was spreadout over the beach area. In the video, one excavator sits on top of jetty and picks up dirt and debris along the Merrimack River and swings it over the jetty to a dirt pile. At the dirt pile a second excavator grabs it and loads it into a dump truck. This process went on for a number of days. You will see clips of two different excavators working on the dirt pile in the video.

Video of excess dirt and stone being removed from the construction site.

Dump trucks waiting to be loaded.

"Open wide"

Waiting for dump truck

Moving the Rubber Mats

I am not exactly sure what the excavator was doing with the rubber mats. He was moving them around in this short video. I apologize the camera's autofocus malfunctioned a couple of times while filming this. I left those sections in because it shows the jetty in its finished condition.

Excavator in Ocean (Using Up Leftover Stone)

With repairs completed on the jetty, the construction crew started to clean up the site. In the process they found some left over stone which was added to the north jetty. The short video shows the excavator driving out into the ocean surface to place stone on the jetty. An ocean wave crashes over the treads of the tractor.

Video of excavator working in the ocean surf.

Excavator adds a leftover stone to jetty.

A wave crashes over the treads of the tractor.

Excavator drives back onto the beach out of the surf.

Waiting to Leave - Barge Photo Essay

These photos were taken on different days. They show the crane barges and stone scowls waiting to be moved to the next project.

 

Preparing the Crane Barge to Leave

I missed the stone scowls being taken away from the construction site. But, I did catch one of the crane barges being prepared for departure. In the video, the gangway is being dipped into the Merrimack River to clean all the sand off it. It was then stored on deck.The anchor posts were pulled up and laid on the deck. The small blue and white tug boats then turn the crane barge around 180 degrees and pushed it up river where it was tied up to a second crane barge anchored in the river. This was about week before the hurricane came up the coast then then went out to sea. It is likely they planned to keep the barges here until after hurricane threat was gone.

Video of preparing the crane barge to leave.

Crane lifting up the gangway so it can be stored on deck.

 

Crane barge being turned around to head up river.

 

The seagulls keep a sharp eye on the proceedings.

One of the church spires in Newburyport is visible in background.

The two crane barges tied up and anchored in Merrimack River, waiting to leave the construction site for the next project.

Shutting Down the Site Series

The final work on the north jetty wrapped up the week of September 14-18. It is was followed by several weeks of dismantling & cleaning up the site, removing tractors, cranes and barges. The hurricane which came up the coast and veered out to sea caused some delays with getting the last two crane barges moved. This is the first in a series of posts documenting the "shutdown" process.

Refueling the Tugboats

The tugboats had been refueled at the construction site during the summer. With the tourist season over, the tugs were able to dock at the public boat ramp at Salisbury Beach State Reservation to refuel.

Crane - Photo Essay

This photo essay highlights the different components of the cranes working on the Salisbury Jetty.

Manitowoc 2250 Crane

Manitowac Crane 4100W

 

 

The arm of the crane being lowered down on to the stone barge.

 

Claws, Grapples, Buckets, & Clamshells

A wide variety of different attachments are used by cranes and excavators to pickup the various size stones being sued to repair the Salisbury jetty.

I seen three different types of grapples used by the cranes. These are used to pick of the huge multi-ton stone blocks. This red one is being inspected. It has four hooks, one on the end of each grapple arm. If you enlarge this photo by clicking on it, you will notice the edges of the arms are serrated.

 

This blue grapple has seven arms. The edges of arms are smooth rather serrated like the red one above.

In this photo you see the blue grapple with its arms opened up.

Next to large blue grapple is a smaller four arm red grapple.

 

Small red grapple

 

Toothless clamshell for picking up small and medium size stones.

This clamshell has teeth and has replace the toothless clamshell that didn't work to well.

One excavator on site has a standard bucket. It used to move the small and medium size stones around. all of the other excavators are equipped with claws.

 

The claw of excavator getting ready to grab a stone block and remove ti from the flatbed trailer.