A Video View Of The Amphibex Unloading

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Eco Technology’s Amphibex unit heads to the Nechako River

Prince George, B.C. -  As a New Brunswick-based company’s water excavator makes its way up the Fraser River to the confluence with the Nechako, Prince George City officials are cautiously optimistic the unit may break up an ice jam that’s been a headache since early December.

(For video coverage of this morning’s unloading and launch of the Amphibex, click on the icon at left.

Prince George Mayor Colin Kinsley was on-hand for the launch.  "It (the Amphibex) may be exactly what we need to try and end this six-week ordeal that people are going through."

Don Shaffer, also with the City, says the Amphibex crew will begin at the confluence of the two rivers.  "At that point, they’re going to feel out the currents, find out where the water’s coming from, what’s available to them in terms of attack and, once they’ve got that sorted out, then they’ll be bringing the shovel at the front of the Amphibex into play."

Shaffer says, unfortunately, there really isn’t anywhere close by for people to go to see the Amphibex at work due to the flooding in the Cottonwood Island Park and River Road areas.  "It’s a problem, we’d really like to have a safe place for people to go," but he says, "We want to make sure that people have safety first in their minds because you can’t go onto the river, that ice is not (solid like) the Rideau Canal."

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