Crackin’ the Bottom 2

Ten weeks ago I did this post about Kraken–the best named vessel in the sixth boro.  That day, I sat on the west shore of Bayonne looking at Elizabeth.  But yesterday . . . with many thanks to Frank Belesimo, VP  of  Cashman Dredging, I got onto the water for a close-up tour of the Kraken and masterful description of how it works.   Here we approach the boat with our backs to Bayonne.  That’s St. Patrick’s Church to the right.  The red tug is Jay Michael (1980).

The orange /red tint to the water speaks of the red clay soil of the area as well as

the cords that conduct the blast signal into the charges placed below.

Three bore-platforms operate along a rail, drilling into the bottom and placing the charges.

In the background on the Elizabethport shore is the huge now-defunct Singer plant.

This is intense work.

Moving inside the house, notice Elizabeth Marine Terminal/Port Newark in the background, along with the peninsula of Bayonne and the cliffs of Manhattan beyond.   And on the line stretched betwen bore-platforms, those nodes at the end of each orange signal cord will

ultimately be clipped together so that when the time comes, a coordinated blast will occur down below, cracking up the

whatever hard bottom material needs to be taken away to reach the contracted depth.

More on this dredging project later.  All fotos by Will Van Dorp; getting the tour the same day the Shuttle flew over . . . I positive NASA wanted a close-up view of the project as well.