Warning: The silt dam at the Port of Tacoma last year was a total game changer for my visibility

I was on a job there six months ago and the water was a total brownout, maybe 2 feet of vis on a good day. They installed a new silt curtain system with a deeper skirt and better anchors, and when I went back last month, I could see my whole work area clearly, about 15 feet. Has anyone else worked a site that improved that much from better containment?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_betty2mo ago

Man, that's a huge difference. I'd probably drop my tools in clear water just from the shock, lmao. Last time I saw a change that big was when they finally fixed the runoff at a marina project. Went from guessing where the bottom was to actually seeing the pilings. Makes the whole day less of a headache for sure.

shaneb161mo ago

Forget just seeing the bottom. Clear water changes how you work. You start spotting the small stuff, like a crack in a piling you would've missed. It means you can fix a problem before it gets big, saving a whole redo later. That visibility turns a guessing game into actual planning.

reese_lee292mo ago

That marina cleanup sounds exactly like the river job we did last spring. Went from maybe six inches of visibility to seeing the gravel bed three feet down in a week. Honestly, it changes everything when you're not just working blind.