Just some work pics

[crane operator]

Went for a ride saturday, down to Ponca Ar. Last 5 miles is all downhill, but it was a great ride, leaves were really pretty.

 

[crane operator]

So they need to mill the surface of this old low water crossing. 10 ton weight limit on the two bridge decks. 10' wide. Milling machine weighs 60,000.

They built a steel frame, on top of the deck, to put under the deck, and then shored it to the rock bottom (divers). The fun part is picking a 20' x 20' I-beam frame, from on top of the deck, and putting it under the deck.

With one crane, without a second winch, and on a 10' wide deck. 2 hours from home in the middle of nowhere.

I had a "plan", and it didn't work out quite exactly the way I had it figured, but we got them put in. They mill early this week and then the frames have to come back out.

 

[crane operator]

I had to swing out over to the side, and start them under the bridge, so I set the crane off to one side of the crossing, and put the outriggers down over there. I blocked the other side front, I had enough chart on rubber, but with the other front side jack down, you make the crane kind of offset, so I stabilized the front that way. I just put down the offside outrigger for visibility.

I had rigging from the one end of frame to one end of spreader bar. The other end I had the chain fall on, and cables on the outer points, and swapped between them.

We've had some rain recently, so there was a pretty good current, I felt bad for the divers, they were young guys and working pretty hard.

Ended up being a long day, I left just after 6 and got back around 8. But I had 4 hours of driving, and they weren't quite ready when I got there. Kind of a long day for 2 picks, but they had to fully shore the first one, so I could drive out on it to set the next one.

 

[crane operator]

Upstream and downstream pics.

People amaze me- We had signs and barricades up, but eventually the park ranger had to be there, to keep people from trying to walk around us on the bridge, to the hiking trail on the other side.

I mean, there's I beams, welders, diver's, and a crane totally blocking the bridge, but there were all kinds of people walking right out on the bridge trying to cross.

 

[Tradesman]

Upstream and downstream pics.

People amaze me- We had signs and barricades up, but eventually the park ranger had to be there, to keep people from trying to walk around us on the bridge, to the hiking trail on the other side.

I mean, there's I beams, welders, diver's, and a crane totally blocking the bridge, but there were all kinds of people walking right out on the bridge trying

.

I hear ya, I was putting bundles of roofing up on a library last week, we had our work area all taped of and cones up every where and a couple in an expensive little car drove between two cones and the front of there car was actually under the yellow danger ribbon. I very politely yelled at the to get to “ f “ outa there, they moved but seemed puzzled why the got yelled at

 

[Welder Dave]

A lot of people with expensive cars seem to think they're entitled. Also having an expensive car doesn't usually translate into a higher IQ.

 

[kshansen]

A lot of people with expensive cars seem to think they're entitled. Also having an expensive car doesn't usually translate into a higher IQ.

In many cases it is in an inverse ratio!

 

[crane operator]

Pulling barges today, and it rained, rained, rained. The old dredge has a nice sounding 6-71 in it, but I could smell the ether when they lit it off, I don't think they even gave it a chance on its own, they just went right to the bottle.

Unstacked trailers first, then set up on the ramp and pulled spuds, mini-ex, and the winch frame. Then pulled the barge apart.

Had a boat moving friend come and pull the dredge out of the water, then we just transferred it to the other companies truck. I didn't think they could get it close enough to me to pull while on the ramp.

 

[crane operator]

Boat mover has a sharp KW.

 

[crane operator]

Sign says no engine brake, doesn't say anything about a 6-71 at full song.....

 

[Raildudes dad]

Why are they milling that deck? Looks like concrete to me and good concrete at that. Around here we have mini mills that fit on skid steers.

 

[crane operator]

The deck is concrete, probably from the 30's, mixed on site from the river rock. ROCK all over in it, like you used to see in barn foundations.

The bridge is in the buffalo river wilderness, which is federal. No improvements, modernization of anything, at all, no way no how.

They are going to mill it and put some kind of expoxied concrete something on top of it, trying to save the surface because I know there's no way they would ever go in there and replace it. This resurfacing of the deck was probably a 5 year planning thing, and who knows how many environmental studies it took.

You know when they originally built it they just went in there and did it. Because they needed a way across the river. Today it would take 10 years just for the studies of fish and salamander impact. And they would come back and say "there's no way the species here could survive the disruption, you can't build it. Go around."

So a new deck. Just to get to the 100' x 100' parking area on the other side, and really for access to the walking trails from the bigger parking lot. Its a 10 ton weight limit, 10' wide, no through traffic.

 

[ichudov]

It is truly incredible how beautiful some of those places are!!!

 

[crane operator]

Back to ponca today to pull the frames out. The surface was milled, around 1" or so.

 

[crane operator]

 

[crane operator]

Rain over the weekend and early this week was kind of hard on some of the leaves, but the oaks are nice still.

 

[crane operator]

Also went back and finished the sign at Imax with the 35 and the mack.

 

[crane operator]

 

[Tradesman]

View attachment 187989

Man that Mack/National is one versatile machine.

 

[ryanmueller]

Built a 60x100 flexi barge and put the ck1100 on it working on a railroad bridge