TIL visiting a lock on the Ohio River fixed my opinion on dredger math

Stopped by the Smithland lock last month and watched the crew work a 10 foot silt build up. Seeing the actual cut volume versus what the charts said was a 30% difference, and that changed my whole view on trusting my old load calculations. Anyone else ever spot a big gap between paper numbers and real site conditions like that?

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1 Comment

roberts.troy18d ago

Figure out what the charts were actually measuring before you toss your whole method. Tbh, silt density shifts with the weather and the last flood, so a 30% gap might just mean your baseline was stale, not that dredger math is broken. I've seen the same kind of spread on jobs where the survey crew took readings after a dry spell, then the river rose and packed everything down. Respectfully, I'd trust the paper numbers as a starting point, but always do a quick on-site probe before you commit to a cut plan. That extra hour saves you from redoing half the work later.