That marina on Lake Michigan had the wildest dredge setup I've ever seen

I was up near Muskegon last month checking out a job and stopped by this random marina. The guy there was running a 12-inch cutterhead with like 30 feet of floating pipeline just zigzagging all over the place. Turns out they had a sandbar that popped up overnight after a storm moved through. I asked him how long it took to reposition and he just laughed and said 'longer than the actual dredging.' Has anyone else stumbled on a setup that made you just stop and shake your head?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewkim19d ago

@hugo_schmidt There's a fine line between improvising and just making a mess. Watching a guy with a fire hose and a bilge pump sounds more like a comedy skit than actual dredging. Three feet of progress in 20 minutes before the pump died. That's not even a dent. People act like moving sand and muck is just scooping out a muddy puddle. A 12 inch cutterhead with 30 feet of pipeline takes serious planning, not just a prayer and a prayer. That setup might have looked wild, but at least the guy had the right idea about what he was doing. Sometimes a hack job is just a job done badly.

hugo_schmidt19d ago

Honestly, that reminds me of a time I was down in Indiana near the Kankakee River and saw this guy trying to dredge a tiny channel with what looked like an old fire hose and a bilge pump strapped to a jon boat. The whole thing was just spitting mud and water everywhere, and he was standing there in waders with a shovel trying to break up the clogs. I pulled over and watched for like 20 minutes, he got maybe three feet of progress before the pump died. Some people are just out there improvising with whatever they can find and it's honestly impressive.