A Moment of Zen and a Gigantic Crane Operation on Neville Island Guest Blog
A little more than nine miles from downtown Pittsburgh in the Ohio River is Neville Island ,
Friends Deb and Sy, residents of the island, are the guest bloggers today- photographs and writing. This blog post is in two parts.
The first is the moment of Zen sent by Deb to me on my phone and the autumn hillside reflected in the Ohio River and the barge and tug capture the feel of where they live on the island. Peaceful and a gorgeous image. Thanks Debbie and Sy for creating the blog post today.
But the day before there was a lot of activity right by their home.
Gigantic Crane Operation Part 2 of the Guest Blog
Sy writes about the crane photos
The photos reveal a crane on a barge that was towed upstream on the
Ohio River, along with an empty barge, from Midland (Beaver County) Pa
to Neville Island. This crane had a large clamshell bucket, weighing,
according to the owner, approx. 8,500 lbs. EMPTY!
This bucket was utilized to clean out silt from our neighbor’s boat garage. It removed four cubic yards of silt at a time which is a lot of silt! Muddy
river water would flow into this calm area. While calm, the silt
would fall out of the water and onto the river bottom in the boat
garage. This boat garage was last cleaned out in a similar fashion
about 11 or 12 years ago. This crew removed approximately 8 to 10 feet
of silt from the river bottom in the boat garage.
Before this calm area was a boat garage, it was part of the storage area for the
upstream gate to a lock on the Ohio River that was constructed in the
late 1890s and decommissioned in the early 1930s when the present
locks went into operation. The steel lock gate was removed and
utilized for scrap metal around the time of WWII.
Additionally, an old, heavy steel barge cover (at least 60 or 70
years old and more than 2000 lbs.) was removed by the crane as the
boat garage only utilized two such covers and this third cover was
deteriorating and not really needed. All of this work was accomplished
in about 4 hours.”
Those pictures are great. My grandsons would have loved watching the whole event. But personally, I loved the picture of the fall leaves reflecting in the river.
I could sit all day and watch other people work. Thankfully, I don’t have to operate any of these cranes because we’d all be in trouble! Thanks for posting them.
Wow, what an amazing photo, loved seeing the reflection of the trees in the water. What a beautiful scenery to look at everyday. I was so amazed at the barge and crane operation, emptying the river of silt. It’s amazing what these machines can do. My Dad would have certainly enjoyed watching them work at this project.
But the day before there was a lot of activity right by their home.The crane arrives
Removing the covers
And there they go
First photo- lovely reflection. Kudos, Deb.
Crane photos and explanation- fascinating, Sy. The Big Boys toys are show stoppers.
Those pictures are great. My grandsons would have loved watching the whole event. But personally, I loved the picture of the fall leaves reflecting in the river.
I could sit all day and watch other people work. Thankfully, I don’t have to operate any of these cranes because we’d all be in trouble! Thanks for posting them.
Wow, what an amazing photo, loved seeing the reflection of the trees in the water. What a beautiful scenery to look at everyday. I was so amazed at the barge and crane operation, emptying the river of silt. It’s amazing what these machines can do. My Dad would have certainly enjoyed watching them work at this project.
We love the ever changing river and are happy you all enjoyed the view ! It’s entertaining for kids of all ages. Thanks for sharing, Ruth.
Wow, incredible! And fascinating; I never thought about “cleaning” a boat garage…
It was something different Wasn’t it?
What a fascinating undertaking! Great description and beautiful photos.