Kokosing Construction Company Inc. had a couple of unusual projects this year that required the use of Poseidon sectional barges. Komatsu PC400s were walked onto the barges from a dock using timber mats.
"We could reach down to 28 ft. with the stick we had [on the excavator]. That allowed us to work a flat section roughly 8 ft. long," says Aaron Harke. "We put that 100,000-lb. machine on a 40' x 60' sectional barge and had about 3 ft. of draft. It was very stable. In fact, we not only had that 100,000-lb. machine on there, we had two 8,000-lb. double-drum winches. That is how we held our position."
The excavator could generate more force than was recommended for the spuds that usually hold the barges in place. Plus, the project specifications didn't allow any type of damage to the underwater bottom. "So we put anchors up on land and ran cables to them," says Harke. "For this application, there were two 1-in.-diameter cables on each of the winches. This allowed for one cable to be run off of each of the four corners. Movement was accomplished by slowly tightening the two cables in the direction of travel and equally releasing the opposing cables. With a little practice, our operators could maneuver the barges precisely without dragging the cables along the bottom and causing disturbances."
The Poseidon sectional barges proved easy to transport. "It is just simply trucking," says Harke. "At 24,000 lbs., it doesn't take a very big crane to lift them out of the water and put them on trucks."
Kokosing Construction even found a more productive way to move the sections. "We used them as retaining walls on a big material barge," says Harke. "We put them along the edges so all of the material on the inside couldn't fall over the edge. It worked out real slick for us."
