Just another day at the WSDOT

A week ago last Friday I had a chance to make a little bit of overtime by helping with the unclogging of a log jam on the Tieton River up in the mountains.  We had a huge snow fall over about a week, then another week later we had unseasonably warm weather.  Needless to say there was a bit of flooding.  One of the rivers had some trees that had fallen and was diverting the river into the bank of the highway and washing out the ground underneath it.   So myself and one of the guys I work with in my office got to go and play in the water and unclog part of the river.

The best way for us to get over the river was to get in the bucket of the boom truck and be sent over.

they tried to get me and the operator in the bucket together, but it was two heavy with both of us so we went on we at a time.  It was a little hairy to be hoisted over he river like that, but I was tied of with a full body harness, hard hat, and a Life vest.  I was prepared for about anything.

Once they got me over, I had to jump down into about 18 inches of water, but it was pretty much out of the main current so it wasn’t too bad.  After I got out, the took the boom back and brought Del over.  Then the work began.

 

 

 

 

We brought a rope over with us so we could drag a steel cable through the river and choke it around the bottom of the tree to dislodge it.  THAT one went pretty well if not for the hole in my wader.  THAT WATER WAS COLD!!  

It really wasn’t too bad if I could get the standing water out of it, and let my foot warm up the two pair of socks I had on.  But I knew that I would have to get back into the water again and get all cold.  It really didn’t help that it was only about 22 degrees out there.

 

 

Every time we got out of the water I had to sit down on a rock and take off my boot and drain out the water.  If you see the look on Del’s face you can tell that he is very concerned.  It was all in good fun. I know that if I got too cold I could always go back to the other side and warm up.

We had one more Log to do, and that was a bit trickier.  It was about 3/4 submerged, so we had the bright idea to tie some of the floating rope to the find of the cable and fish it through.  But the current was so strong, that we never found the rope, so I volunteered to reach into the water and grab it.  luckily we knew exactly where the cable was, so it just too about a second or two.  but it was still  really cold, and I had wished I wasn’t the one to volunteer.  It had to be done and somebody had to go for it.  We choked it and they pulled it to the other side and we were done.   We were taken back to the other side and got into a nice warm truck.  I had the forethought to pack an entire change of clothes if I needed them, so I was able to change, get dry and warm.

We had a lot of fun that day, and our Regional Safety Officer was there and commended all of us on a job well done and how efficiently and safely we pulled it off…