Ratdog68
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We had a LOT of bad weather days this time. Day after day of 50mph with gusts to 70mph. The hovercraft blew an engine and was down for a few days... so, that meant everything (personnel travel and gear hauling) was done via helo. The day's a busy one with ten or so passenger trips and sling load trips. Especially with our helo being big/powerful enough to make it to Fairbanks (from our location)... meaning, TSA clearance for EVERY person, EVERY time they board. Doesn't matter that it's a 5 minute flight (4 miles).
"Rig Moves" are always fun too... especially with so little room to move things around to facilitate it. 1.5 million pounds, breaking down into three major components... new layer of containment to be spread out, covered with "rig mats" (a 40' x 20' mat of 2"x6" standing on edge, contained within a steel framework)... each piece is "driven" back from the well house, the tires rotated 90 degrees and it's driven laterally to the next locale, tires rotated 90 degrees, and driven up to the next well house spot. Then Humpty-Dumpty is reassembled in place.
No bears this hitch... but, saw some fox tracks on the bags just before I left to come home.
Oddly, the ocean is slow to freeze up this winter. Usually, by now, they're beginning construction of the ice road. NOT this year. The hovercraft was creating a "wave" ahead of it (beneath the ice)... but the ice was remaining intact. That was for MY ride to shore. Everything previously was chunks of ice breaking apart and floating atop the water when the hovercraft approached.
In this pic (a year ago) some "genius" chose NOT to lay rig mats down for this rig move (on shore). If you look to the lower left part of the pic, you can see culverts. Let's just say... the rig sunk when the culverts collapsed beneath the weight of it. This rig (similar to the one on our island) piece shows you the scale of it. This is just ONE component, there's usually five. And, yes, it blocked the entire width of the road until they could get it moved... there's NO "other route" around it either. They had to build an access road to by-pass it (environmental permitting nightmare in and of itself), and had to helo people the 50 miles to/from the airport... as well as groceries, materials, tools, etc. Yeah, he got his walking papers for that judgment call.
Below, "rig mats" are stacked on the deck of the barge, in front of the excavator.
"Rig Moves" are always fun too... especially with so little room to move things around to facilitate it. 1.5 million pounds, breaking down into three major components... new layer of containment to be spread out, covered with "rig mats" (a 40' x 20' mat of 2"x6" standing on edge, contained within a steel framework)... each piece is "driven" back from the well house, the tires rotated 90 degrees and it's driven laterally to the next locale, tires rotated 90 degrees, and driven up to the next well house spot. Then Humpty-Dumpty is reassembled in place.
No bears this hitch... but, saw some fox tracks on the bags just before I left to come home.
Oddly, the ocean is slow to freeze up this winter. Usually, by now, they're beginning construction of the ice road. NOT this year. The hovercraft was creating a "wave" ahead of it (beneath the ice)... but the ice was remaining intact. That was for MY ride to shore. Everything previously was chunks of ice breaking apart and floating atop the water when the hovercraft approached.
In this pic (a year ago) some "genius" chose NOT to lay rig mats down for this rig move (on shore). If you look to the lower left part of the pic, you can see culverts. Let's just say... the rig sunk when the culverts collapsed beneath the weight of it. This rig (similar to the one on our island) piece shows you the scale of it. This is just ONE component, there's usually five. And, yes, it blocked the entire width of the road until they could get it moved... there's NO "other route" around it either. They had to build an access road to by-pass it (environmental permitting nightmare in and of itself), and had to helo people the 50 miles to/from the airport... as well as groceries, materials, tools, etc. Yeah, he got his walking papers for that judgment call.
Below, "rig mats" are stacked on the deck of the barge, in front of the excavator.