Loading Stone into the Stone Transport Barge

The 1st crane barge is anchored near the beach along the Merrimack River between the Salisbury jetty and the concrete seawall. This crane is being used to load stone from the beach area onto a stone transport barge. One of the excavators moves the stone blocks from the staging area down to the beach. The crane grabs the block with a grapple and slowly swings it over to the transport barge. The stones are placed carefully in the transport and the load needs to be spread out and balanced to keep the barge level. The following series of photos illustrates the process. The next blog post will have a video of the operation.

Excavator grabs a stone block with its claw.

It drops it along the waters edge.

The crane operate positions the grapple (opened up wide) over the block.

The grapple hooks are pulled tight and the stone is lifted into the air.

Close-up the grapple.

The stone is slowly and carefully swung over the crane barge to the transport barge on the right side.

The stone is lowered into the transport barge and the grapple is disengaged.

The grapple swings back to get the next stone.

Next stone ...

2nd Crane Barge - Repositioning

After the two anchors posts were setup on the barge, both posts were raised up to allow the barge to be moved to another location at the construction site. The large blue & white tug pulled the barge out from shore. The smaller blue tug boat helped to push the barge sides ways. The small white tug boat eventually comes to assist and push the barge into its new position. I have a few still photos and video showing the barge being repositioned.

 

 

2nd Crane Barge - Putting in the Metal Posts

After the barge was beached, the next step was to setup up the metal anchor posts. On the deck of the barge two long metal posts, one round and one square, were stored. The crane was used to lift each post into a vertical position and then each post was inserted through an opening in the deck. The opening in the deck extends to the bottom of the barge and allows the metal post to be dropped into the sandy bottom of the river.

Maneuvering these giant metal posts around the deck of the barge and inserting them into the holes was no easy task. It required careful coordination between the crew and the crane operator. The crew used hand and head signals to relay instructions to the crane operator. The crane operator moved the posts slowly to minimize the amount of sway which could be dangerous to the crew.

2nd Crane Barge Coming up the Merrimack River (Video)

This video was shot on  a very windy day. The wind buffeting noise is very noticeable on the audio track. The wind also made holding the camera steady a challenging task. It took a good hour to bring the crane barge up the mouth of the Merrimack River to the Salisbury jetty construction site. The video is composed a series of edited clips highlighting the key details and events. Once the barge was inside the mouth of the river between the two jetties, the barge stopped briefly and the boom of the crane was raised. The barge continued on being pushed by the large white & blue tugboat. A smaller white tug followed along ready to assist if necessary. Once the barge neared the beach along the construction site, the barge was turned 90 degrees to the right. The white tug was positioned to prevent the barge from turning too far to the right. The small blue tug boat is also visible in some shots. It remained on standby. The barge was finally beached in about 2 feet of water.

This is the first of three barge videos.

2nd Crane Barge Brought up the Merrimack River

A 2nd barge with a large crane on it arrived on May 14. It took the about an hour to navigate through the mouth of Merrimack River and land the barge at the construction site. The barge was pushed by a large blue and white colored three deck high tug boat. Two smaller tug boats, one all white and one all blue assisted with turning and positioning the barge. The barge arrived at the mouth of the river with the crane's boom in the down position. Once inside the Plum Island & Salisbury jetties, the boom was lifted up. I took a number of photos but they really do not do the whole process of bringing the barge up the river justice. I also took a substantial amount of video footage. The video footage has been editing into three short segments which will be posted over the next few days.

Barge arrives at the mouth of the Merrimack River. The crane's boom is in the down position.

The small white tug boats goes out to assist.

1st crane barge with stone transport barge on the left, and the 2nd crane barge on the right.

 

White tug boats stands by to assist if needed.

Boom of the crane is raised up.

Close-up of the larger blue & white tug boat pushing the barge.

The white tug boat moves into position in anticipation of turning the crane barge.

Large tug boat begins the turn.

Small white tug boat prevents the barge from turning to far to the right.

The barge is beached at the construction site.

Front of the barge sits in two feet of water.

The tall metal post on the front of the barge was raised into position by the crane and inserted into a hole in the front of the barge. It is one of two metal posts used to anchor the barge in position.

Bringing Stone Out to the Jetty II

In this black & white video, the excavator gets the granite block into the front end loader bucket on the first try. The block is then driven out onto the Salisbury jetty to a 2nd excavator that is positioning the stones on the top.

The posts over the next few days will focus on the arrival of a second crane barge which I had the opportunity to photograph and video coming up the Merrimack River.

Try, try, try again

The stone blocks are being brought out to Salisbury jetty by front end loader. The blocks are loaded into the bucket of the front end loader by the excavator with the claw. It sounds like a pretty simple and straight forward operation. This video shows that the stones are not always cooperative.