Pile Up Continues On Nechako Icejam

Thursday, January 24, 2008 08:48 PM

City crews raise earth berm between river and Ongman business district (CPG photo)

Prince George, B.C. - The Nechako River icejam is expected to grow to 12-kilometres overnight, as the continued cold weather sees large chunks pile up at the head of the blockage.

Residences on Morning Place lie at that 12-k mark, and city crews and contractors were on-site today doubling the first layer of gabion diking that was put in place back on January 1st.

At the foot of the icejam, the City’s liaison officer, Kevin Brown, says the Amphibex amphibious water excavator is making progress with a capital ’P’.

Brown says since Saturday, the unit has carved a one-kilometre channel into the Nechako jam from the confluence with the Fraser. He says today, the effort was focused on widening that channel, so that when warmer air temperatures loosen the ice up river there will be room for it to flow out into the Fraser. (The Amphibex has a GPS system on-board that transmits its location back to City Hall, so it’s location is known at all times. The GPS picture is available on the city’s website, click here)

Previous Story - Next Story

Email |

Print |

Facebook |

Twitter |

Digg |

Del.icio.us

Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2008 08:48 PM in News by 250 News

Return to Home

Comments

Posted by: thereasonableman on January 25 2008 3:49 AM

Good to hear the machine is working well. I guess Heidi is off the hook now....

;-)

Posted by: lou on January 25 2008 10:14 AM

A Floating Platform with a Motor
A Crane
A Large Demo. Ball
Put all those together and I believe it would of worked alot better, faster and cheaper.

Warm water thing--DON'T cook our fish.

Posted by: lmorg on January 25 2008 11:48 AM

Ah, isnt the machine only here until Monday??????? Then what? It sure isnt going to cut through 12K of ice in the remaining amount of time.

Posted by: heidi1555 on January 25 2008 11:57 AM

It would make sense to purchase it. Then if we see early signs of a jam next December we can get rid of it while it's small instead of thinking we need to ride it out until spring and be over our heads in water and ice.

:)

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 25 2008 1:10 PM

I agree Heidi.it would be a damn handy piece of equipment to have around!

Posted by: lmorg on January 25 2008 1:43 PM

Those guys aren't going to sell their machine not while they are makinig so much money with it.

Find out what company built it then buy our own - NEW.

Posted by: RRrabbitt on January 25 2008 1:47 PM

Yep... and then during the summer we could use it for all those many jobs that require digging in water or close to shorelines so we wouldn't have to convert a conventional excavator to "food safe".

On weekends we could take it up to Francoise or Babine to haul in those really, really big ones !!!

Goodtimes ...!!

Posted by: vocer on January 25 2008 3:24 PM

1.25 Million bucks from "Normrock Ind." and we could have one to.

http://www.normrock.ca/1/The_Amphibex/The_Amphibex

Posted by: Chester on January 26 2008 12:37 AM

$1.25 Million is not a great deal of money these days. Haven't you seen how government throws money around. $400 grand to guarantee Horizon Air dosen't lose any money in their flying venture in PG. Really, it's not a big deal. A few bucks added to your property taxes this year will cover it. Chester