Creating a Level Top Surface on the Jetty

This video shows how those huge flat stone blocks are being used to cap the top of the jetty and create a level top surface. Some of the heaviest granite blocks are being used for the top of the jetty which generally sustains the worst of the breaking waves during a storm. The excavator uses small stones to raise the base level that flat stone blocks will be placed on. Sometimes, the height isn't right. In this case, the excavator tries twice to position the stone block but it is too low. So the block is removed and more small stone is added to raise the base height. Good video showing the details of how the capping progress is being done

It was a rather winding day and the camera was being blown around a bit.

Stone Block Handoff

This is continuation of a series of videos showing the excavators working on the Salisbury jetty. In this video the first excavator is bring out a huge flat stone block. All goes well until the tractor drops it (oops!) He picks it up again and has a better grip on it. You will notice how slowly and carefully the excavator drives out onto the jetty. Very safety conscious. The block of stone is probably about 18 or 19 tons in weight. Once the excavator gets out to the area being repaired it puts the stone down and the second excavator grabs it.

Excavator with Claw Brings Stone out to Jetty

Two excavators with claws were working on the Salisbury jetty. One excavator brought large stone blocks from the staging area on Salisbury beach out to a pile on the jetty. A second excavator was using the stones to cap the top of the jetty.

 

Second excavator was being used to position the large flat blocks as capstones on top of the jetty.

Video of excavator bringing a huge block out to jetty.

Excavator with Bucket Brings Out Small Stone to Jetty

The construction crew has three excavators with claws and one excavator with a bucket working on the Salisbury jetty. The excavator with the bucket is used to scoop up small stones and bring them out the jetty. The small stones are being used under the large stone blocks to raise them up to the correct height and to level them. Large flat blocks are being place across the top of the jetty to cap it and create a level top surface.

 

The stone is brought in by trucks and stored in a staging area on the beach before being brought to the jetty.

Video of the excavator bringing a scoop of small stones out to jetty.

Crane Works on Outer Jetty

One of the crane barges was anchor about half way out along the Salisbury jetty. It was picking up some of the stone blocks that had slid down the side the jetty and bringing them up to near the top. I was only able to get some limited video that day because the camera ran out memory on the card. The process of moving stones around with a crane equipped with a grapple is rather slow. The video is edited to "speed up" the process by showing clips of key moments in the process and editing out the slower sections of the crane trying to line up the grapple in the right position to grab a stone. We plan on getting some better footage hopefully in the near future.

A third crane arrived sometime during the week of of June 10. It has a white boom rather than a red one like he other two cranes. A second stone transport barge also arrived. A good place to view the cranes is to go to the northern end of Plum Island. Free parking is very limited but there is a paid parking lot. If you walk through the paid lot, you will find a nice board walk (handicap accessible) just behind the restroom building. You can get a really good view from the end of board walk. Binoculars with get you nice close-up view of the action.

Crane Barge Maintenance

The crane barge being used to load the stone transport barge was taken out of service for some maintenance work. The doors of two of the cargo containers on the deck were opened out. The grapple had been disconnect from the crane cables.

A large stone bock is sued as a anchor or mooring for the barge.

 

Blue work tug used to move the barges around.

White tug boat.

I couldn't resist this photo of the two excavator arms.

The tug boat operators takes the time was the windows.

Crane Loads Stone into Transport Barge (Video)

This video shows the excavator moving stone blocks to the water's edge at Salisbury beach and a large crane picking up the granite with a grapple and loading it into a transport barge.It takes a lot of skill and patience on the part of the crane operator to position the grapple over the stone block and get a good grip on it so it can be safely lifted off the ground. The grapple is controlled by three cables. There is a lift cable the hoists it up and down. A second cable controls the opening and closing of the hooks of the grapple. A third cable controls the grapple's horizontal position. It pulls the grapple closer to the crane (horizontally) or allows it swing out away from the crane.