Restoration Blog

Wet Dredging with Patricia week 13th to 15th May

by: Andrew R.

Monday 
After a good discussion at the depot around the nearly refurbished Dredger No.5, on Monday, some stayed to continue the great work whilst others went back to Patricia.
Patricia has been feeling bad with hydraulics causing issues  - ‘old parts’.
But overall now we are back up to speed. 

To improve safety we now have van wing mirrors so the operator has all round vision and can stay in the seat when operating the rear legs and reversing, let alone know if crew are near the sides or legs.  As always aiming to make the vessels on the water safer.

Tuesday

Another training session.  First the jib slew locking pin was modified to enable its removal from the cab.  Up till now members of the crew had to be trapeze artists walking around the spud legs to remove the pin whilst tethered to cabin rail with safety restraint.  A foreseeable risk was identified and now removed from operations, another brilliant improvement to make crew safety better.

The trainee had a good day and we filled a hopper.

Still finding interesting things, sawn off bicycle parts and large plastic pipes as well as the known builders rubble and grit from the dumping era on this section.

Wednesday 
Again started at depo, modifying Annette2’s Swan neck in readiness for the return of No.5. Also an engineer removed some material from the slew lock pin to make it lighter. 
Then helped the Refit team by modifying a brass nut to the filters to stop a leak of hydraulics.
Back to Patricia and another good 4 hours Dredging. Feel a lot safer now during set up processes.
Another water main to be aware of and lots of silt and rubble east of Ryeford locks

So we are back into action now so dredging and training can continue.