David vs. Goliath: Amphibex vs. Icejam

Saturday, January 19, 2008 04:42 PM

The Amphibex at work on the ice at the confluence of the Fraser & Nechako Rivers

Prince George, B.C. - At this early stage in the game, Eco Technology’s amphibious excavator looks to be the underdog as it tackles a mammoth icejam on the Nechako, starting at the confluence of the city’s two rivers.

A helicopter tour, arranged for by the City and provided by Pacific Western Helicopters, gave members of the media a first-hand look at the Amphibex at work. (For the video clip, click picture at left.)

As the footage shows, the ice appears to be quite thick as it reaches the Fraser and the Amphibex definitely has its work cut out for it before reaching thinner ice channels along the Nechako, shown towards the end of the video clip.

Eco Technologies owner, Paul LaPlante, says it was important for crews to get out on the water, "learn the river", and understand currents before undertaking excavation. "Safety is first," he says. Now that excavation has begun, it will continue around the clock for the next few days.

Meantime, the City’s Public Information Officer, Don Shaffer says pipe will arrive tomorrow at several sites prior to the Monday start of construction on the warm-water pipeline that will bring water from the Canfor pulp mill into the Nechako River channel at 15-degrees Celsius.

As for the icejam, itself, Shaffer says it continues to reach Aspen Lane - a distance of about 5.5-kilometres from the confluence and river levels have remain unchanged since yesterday, except at the Foothills Bridge, where levels rose 0.1-metres since yesterday.

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Posted on Saturday, January 19, 2008 04:42 PM in News by Michelle Cyr-Whiting

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Comments

Posted by: Big Shooter on January 19 2008 5:15 PM

From a gag order to a free chopper ride must be a election year. Kick some ice ass Mr LaPlante.

Posted by: gitterdun on January 19 2008 5:16 PM

I hope it is actually working faster than it appears on the video.......we've got more cold weather on the way, the Amphibex will freeze into the ice. We'll have to chip it free!

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on January 19 2008 5:24 PM

That video certanly puts the job in perspective.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 19 2008 5:37 PM

Massive job but all they can do is give it a shot!

Posted by: Jayda on January 19 2008 6:29 PM

The video sure does put into perspective. I hope the predicted cold next week doesn't impact their efforts. Good job Heidi!

Posted by: heidi1555 on January 19 2008 6:38 PM

GOLIATH WILL LOSE HIS HEAD!......i hope.

Awesome videos Michelle :)
Glad to see you got the video going Jayda and the name came to me 'Quick Time' from Apple Inc. a little late.

Posted by: Vikingnuck on January 19 2008 6:43 PM

"Meantime, the City�s Public Information Officer, Don Shaffer says pipe will arrive tomorrow at several sites prior to the Monday start of construction on the warm-water pipeline that will bring water from the Canfor pulp mill into the Nechako River channel at 15-degrees Celsius."

Begs the question.......WHY? Does the City not feel Mr.Laplante (David) can do what he said he could and slay this giant icejam (Goliath)? Has ANYONE brought up the potential costs of this piece of machinery being shipped accross Canada and back, plus the expense of doing the job itself? In this humble citizens Opinion, the City should have listened to another humble citizens suggestion (Heidi's) when it first came to light, scrapped the Rube Goldberg idea of the water pipes, and this job would be done already. But hey, I'm just a lowly taxpayer. What the hell do I know?

Posted by: He speaks on January 19 2008 7:22 PM

Wow, 6 km of ice to be cut out with that little Tonka toy. I think the spring thaw will come before that gets to the Cameron street bridge.

Just go over to WIC or IDL and ask them to get a long reach excavator, 30 ton size. Obviously it frozen hard enough. walk out to the confluence and start bailing the ice out. What is so tough about that.

To rent the machine out of Alberta or Saskabush will be about $15k a month. Throw in five operators to work it 24/7, that would cost another 40k a month. Put together a saftey program at 20k a month. Multiply that by two machines and it could likely have been done for under 200k.

What is the matter with these professionals. I think we are being taken for a ride on the ECO Tech float boat.

Posted by: sungod on January 19 2008 7:24 PM

It might be a good idea to keep all the options open: Pileline, Amphibex, Dynamite! The pipeline should be installed and put into use whenever ice begins to form again, this year, next year or whenever. Never drop an option, unless it's the idea that 'the province should purchase an Amphibex and store it somewhere, like maybe Prince George'. Where's your entrepeneurial spirit Mr. Mayor? Why doesn't Prince George buy an Amphibex and rent it out to the province whenever it's needed? At $350,000.00 a pop it might generate some income to pay back other not so successful city ventures.

Posted by: He speaks on January 19 2008 7:29 PM

No dynamite.

After the salmon has gone up the river, start digging out a channel. They did it 40 years ago, to keep it from freezing over.

The problem is, the pine trees are dead, the ground can not hold the water, so the soils erodes into the rivers, Thus the Nechako river when it hits the Fraser is running so slow, the sediments settle and the channel keeps getting shallower. Thus when the ice starts to form, it dams up the channel.

Its simple to me, why can't anyone else understand this.

Dig out a channel every year. $50k a year.

Posted by: sungod on January 19 2008 7:38 PM

He speaks the truth and I happen to know some other people understand this. PG isn't the only place in the province with river sediment problems and this will be a hot issue for the next few years but rest assured that there's a movement afoot to address the topic on a provincial basis...lucky for PG and the rest of us.

Posted by: Palopu on January 19 2008 7:50 PM

HE SPEAKS, has it bang on. Every now and then we get a post that sticks to the basics and uses common sense. I have walked the South Channel this fall and I can tell you that sediment is the problem. Ice jamming on rock and on islands that were not their 20/25 years ago.

I doubt that this little machine can do much on the South side of the river because there is very little water their. Opening up a wide channel on the North side could create a bigger back up.

Last but not least there is a good chance that the hot water from the pulp mill could freeze faster than cold, and therefore could create a bigger problem.

This party is far from over.

Without dredging you will only repeat the problem over and over.

Posted by: owl on January 19 2008 9:56 PM

1. There is the immediate concern of getting the water down behind the dam .... solution??? - remove a portion of the dam to open up a surface channel

2. There is there is the mid term (this season still) concern of keeping he channel open and preventing it from freezing again ...... solution??? unless you want to keep the excavator here for the rest of the season, warm water ....

3. There is the long term concern of the ice jam repeating more often in the coming years than in past years ..... solution?? Dredging ��.. but also identifying where the high water for the summer floods will be allowed to settle �. River road or banks of the Nechako as the dike system �. And how high to make the dikes so that water does not start to percolate �. I notice in the paper today that it is apparently percolating into the new garage under the casino.

4. There is the long term failsafe backup system � if dredging a deeper channel or more does not do the job ALL the time, then a backup or two needs to be there �.. warm water access, dikes, Amphibex or equivalent �.. perhaps there is a barge based machine there which can actually dredge the main water channel in the summer/fall and be used in Amphibex fashion in the winter if an ice jam occurs ��..

Posted by: gardengirl on January 19 2008 10:12 PM

http://www.ecotec.ca/videoen.htm

Check out this video, boys. The amphibex
also does dredging.

Is anyone going to blame Alcan for this? The water levels in the Nechako raised dramatically in Vanderhoof in early/mid
December (reported by a relative who lives on the Nechako). Did they dump a few inches of water into the system, thus breaking the ice on the river system and sending it down to P.G. where it got stuck? Maybe we should check into who caused it. The Kenney Dam is supposedly 4 feet above flood level. What's going to happen in the Spring when they have to release more water? Just my opinion.

Posted by: gitterdun on January 19 2008 10:59 PM

"....the Fraser River Port Authority carries out programmed maintenance dredging. The Port Authority's maintenance dredging program is designed to balance the annual infill with the amount removed by dredging, to maintain the shape of the riverbed." Why has this not been done here? It seems that PG is never pro-active until the residents demand it.

On Jan 15 I also suggested that a bubble system similar to the one used on Williston Lake to keep the ice from forming, but was wondering if that same principle could be applied to a river. Any ideas if that would work on a river?

Posted by: owl on January 19 2008 11:25 PM

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/water/wm/foxriver/howdidtheydothat/dredging.html

There are many ways to dredge a river. I would think that a backhoe is about the slowest way of doing it.

One of the faster ways is to use a pneumatic system as shown on the above site. That one too, is a small machine, but i would be able to deepen a channel underwater much more quickly....

Posted by: owl on January 19 2008 11:28 PM

The principle of a bubble system is to create water movement where there is none or virtually none - such as lakes.

We have a very fast moving river. I doubt a bubbler would help much there.

Posted by: heidi1555 on January 20 2008 1:18 AM

Yes I agree with the dredging. In late summer 2006 when the river was dry in most areas why didn't they do it then? Walking through there it was amazing how much it was built up inbetween the CN bridge and Fort George Park.

Posted by: heidi1555 on January 20 2008 1:48 AM

"It's incredible," said city clerk Don Schaffer. "I think it'll do it."

Go baby go!
:)

Posted by: ChrisAnnB on January 20 2008 12:16 PM

It would be kind of neat if they had a webcam set up so we could watch the Amphibex at work. :)

Posted by: heidi1555 on January 20 2008 1:15 PM

Should ask Brian to get on that if they'd allow it ChrisAnnB. He's the biggest and most sought after computer nerd I know ;)

Posted by: Palopu on January 20 2008 5:10 PM

Didnt see any action on the river to-day. The Amphibex was parked over by the pulp mills. Maybe they take Sunday off, or they had a malfunction, or maybe it was lunch time. Who knows. At the present rate 10 days wont be sufficient.

Posted by: heidi1555 on January 20 2008 6:30 PM

Just saw on Global (love Global too, go Ted) if you want to watch tonight at 11:00 the Amphibex was working today and they are making very good progress. They also said it looked like David is winning.

:)

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on January 20 2008 9:42 PM

Posted by: owl on January 19 2008 11:25 PM
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/water/wm/foxriver/howdidtheydothat/dredging.html

There are many ways to dredge a river. I would think that a backhoe is about the slowest way of doing it.

One of the faster ways is to use a pneumatic system as shown on the above site. That one too, is a small machine, but i would be able to deepen a channel underwater much more quickly....

Wrong.

One of the fastest ways to dredge a channel is to cover the river with lots of ice. The thicker the ice the more the water is pressurized and that turns up the water speed. That's how nature makes a dredge. We call it flooding, nature calls it, rip'n a new one.

Posted by: heidi1555 on January 21 2008 7:58 AM

Very true Yama like at Salmon Valley. Look at how that river has changed since we were kids but the difference is there are no large number of workers out of work.

Posted by: lostfaith on January 21 2008 11:28 AM

Dredging is the ONLY solution to this. Whether it's done with excavators or dozers. Gravel has to be removed and thats the bottom line.