My foreman in New Orleans last week argued we should dredge deeper than the spec, saying 'more is better for the channel', but our engineer says that's a fast track to bank collapse.

So, who's right here, and what's the deepest you've gone past the plan without causing a slide?

2 comments

2 Comments

Heard a story from a buddy working a river job up in Missouri. His crew got pushy about digging just a couple extra feet "for good measure" on a bend. They argued with the engineer for a solid hour. Well, they did it, and not 48 hours later a whole section of the bank slumped right into their new channel. Cost a fortune in time and repair. That engineer in your post is spot on. More is definitely not better if it wrecks the ground holding everything up.

val3233d ago

Yeah, that "for good measure" thinking is exactly the problem. It's not about being lazy, it's about not messing with the balance of the whole site. A couple feet can change the pressure on wet soil completely. That slump was just the ground finding its new, weaker shape.