Dredge cutterhead clogged at the mouth of the Alabama River, lost a full shift

We were pulling sand near the Mobile delta and hit a mess of old rope and netting wrapped tight around the cutterhead. Took 45 minutes to clear it with a torch and a spud wrench, then another hour flushing debris from the suction line. That was after I switched from a standard impeller to a vortex pump last month, which handles trash better but loses suction on fines. Has anyone else dealt with marathon clogs in tidal zones, and do you run a grate or just keep a diver on call?

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wesley_martin18d ago

Damn, that sounds like a miserable shift! I was reading about this exact thing on a dredging forum last week, some old-timer said he keeps a spare diver on call whenever he's working anywhere near the delta for this reason. That rope and netting crap is the worst, it just wraps tighter every time the cutter spins. I've never run a grate myself, seems like it would clog even faster with fines and shells. Switching to the vortex was smart for trash, but yeah, you trade one problem for another. Might be worth checking if the suction line has a cleanout port you can pop open before it backs up all the way.