Who stole Limerick Marina?

[oceanfroggie]

Limerick Custom House Marina has vanished overnight

Limerick Marina - Not a trace

Even the harbour hoggers seem to have been abducted by an alien vessel?

Pat Lysaght "I'm telling you it was right here when I left last night"

Spear Fishing - Hunting marina pontoons! Seriously WI rechecking depths predredging.

Ah - here it is! The custom house marina was dismantled and moved to Arthurs Quay in one day!

The fingers have to be left anchored to their pontoons or they would have capsized - top heavy. Lucky Pat was on hand to advise them NOT to disconnect the fingers, otherwise there would have been more than a few red faces.

Dredging the sand bank off Arthurs Quay. Mud and silt dug and transferred to barge. Barge then moved inside lock and another digger removes spoil to road trucks along the quay wall of the lock chambre. The spoil is then transported by road to a storage location for drying out before disposal.

Limerick with the tide ebbing. With 4 turbines running up at Ardnacrusha there is a strong flow over the wier and down the Shannon.

Barges are rotated between dredging raft and collection point for loading spoil onto road trucks

Limerick - This really is a fabulous location for a marina

Sarsfield sea lock - Where spoil is removed from barges to trucks

Note the chains through the diggers tracks securing it to the raft

Pat Lysaght on right with a neighbour - Pat has been assisting both WI and contractors with his specialist knowledge.

Contractors Tug - used to transfer barges between raft and lock

Matthew Bridge with 4 turbines worth of flow and winter flooding - I've seen it a lot worse than this.

On a serious note, this is a large scale civil engineering operation. The volumn of mud and silt to be removed is vast with 10 years worth of accumulation. WI are to be congratulated for doing this properly and not by half measures. Lets support Limerick Marina next year by visiting the refurbished marina complex.

 

[AndieMac]

Interesting post OF.

Is it actual mud/silt or more fine river gravel?
I imagine it would be kind of frustrating scooping sloppy mud off the river bed with the long arm excavator, how much 'solid' content where they getting from each bucket load?
Handling the spoil is the tricky and often non cost effective part of dredging, but good on the authority for having a go.

To stop the unbolted fingers capsizing you can secure a simple 'trimaran' style out-rigger, made up of two timber (framing pine) lengths (approx. 3 metres) and a 44 gallon drum lashed on each side, located to the centre of the finger.
Clamped by a short piece of steel rod hooked on one end and threaded on the other. The hook end is attached around the lower edge of the pontoon whalers and the threaded end goes up through a pre-drilled hole in the framing pine sitting flat across the decking.

 

[Firefly625]

really interesting post and series of pictures, thanks for posting OF. That current running through the bridge...

..certainly makes running out of Chichetser marina on free flow look like a walk in the park!

 

[oceanfroggie]

really interesting post and series of pictures, thanks for posting OF. That current running through the bridge...

..certainly makes running out of Chichetser marina on free flow look like a walk in the park!

That flow is generated when the hydro electric dam upstream is running at full capacity during winter. That bridge is on a short loop of river that runs off the Shannon through the city and then back into the Shannon which carries most of the water. Under normal summer conditions the hydro station is running low load and hence summer current is gentle. I have witnessed 11kt of white water flowing behind that bridge during winter flooding combined with spring ebb tide and full flow from the massive hydro dam 5 miles up stream. But during summer is like a mill pond.

I remember a beautiful brand new Fairline targa getting badly walloped trying to go up in similar conditions against the advice of nav authority. All he had to do was wait some hours and it would have been slack. 18" hole just above the waterline caused by crashing sideways into a pontoon in the flow. He was very lucky. Arrogant know all ignored the advice offered by other boaters passing the other way. For about 2hr before HW the flow is often zero.

 

[Mike k]

Thanks very much for posting what is a most interesting thread- great pics too, one day i will get to Limerick but Courtown Harbour is my first ambition!