Just logged 10,000 hours on the old cutterhead dredge

I was looking over the maintenance logs from the Lake Pontchartrain project and saw the total run time. It hit me that this machine has moved more sand than I can picture, and I started on it fresh out of trade school. How many yards of material do you figure that adds up to over the years?

3 comments

3 Comments

mason2831mo ago

Ever try to ballpark the yardage from just hours? You need the pump's average output in cubic yards per hour, that's the key. Find a few old production reports from different jobs and get a rough average yardage per shift. Multiply that average by your total hours, then maybe knock off 20% for downtime and maintenance. It won't be perfect, but it'll get you a number that feels real.

ivan2111mo ago

Mason283 is right on the money with that method. We did exactly that on a big foundation job last year, pulling reports from three different pours. Our average came out to about 45 yards an hour for that pump. Took the total hours, multiplied, and then took a chunk off for coffee breaks and a couple of hose clamps letting go. Ended up within 5% of the actual ticket count, which was close enough for our tracking.

jakewhite1mo ago

Mason283's math works if you have the logs, but hours alone don't tell you much without knowing the pump size and material type.