Posted on 01/09/2012 5:35:38 AM PST by thackney
Well, I was just jiving ya, but it appears you need 3’ of ice to drive a truck on it.
I was thinking they could drive out to the frozen-in tanker to load.
Of course this is salt-water ice which probably has no strength compared to fresh-water ice.
It depends on the weight, size of load.
When I worked farther north at Alpine, they built the Colville River Ice bridge for 100 ton loads.
I wish I could remember how thick they made it. I traveled across it a few years ago.
This is a real story—full of Drama. This should be made into a movie.
Truck tankers haul about 8 to 10,000 gallons. How many trucks is going to take? About 150 trips. Good luck.
Isn’t that nice of us! Tough life in the north ...
Definitely not ideal driving conditions. I saw piles of ice like this in Michigan City Indiana. I stopped on the way through just to see if the lake would freeze.
I guess the wind piled it up, some of those chunks were bigger than houses.
Let's see, 150 trucks, one trip. 75 trucks, two trips, 15 trucks, 10 trips...
Just think of the jobs it would create. (and another season for ICE ROAD TRUCKERS ®)
The other two have been ooc for some time due to their age and lack of funding for repairs. Healy is the newest of the three...about ten years old.
After this, they need to install enough storage tanks to hold a year’s supply, and schedule filling them in the summer.
Tell, them, not me. There are probably reasons why it isn’t done. The town has been there for over a hundred years. I think part of the problem might be the “gelling” of diesel at low winter temps. I’m no engineer, so don’t quote me.
Please,no. The only movie that should be made is if the tanker can’t get through and thy have to evac women and children before the end of winter.
Through what? That's odd, I could have sworn they were talking about two-feet-thick sea ice. But Al Gore told me that it had all disappeared, so this report must be wrong.
They do have that much storage and they normally do get filled in the summer via barges. This year, the sea ice has come early while at the same time they made their orders later than normal as some of the prices were trending down.
Just read another piece that caused this fuel problem.
Nome is in need of diesel and unleaded gasoline after a fall fuel delivery by barge was delayed by a storm that swept Western Alaska. By the time the weather had improved, Nome was iced in and a barge delivery was impossible.
http://www.adn.com/2012/01/09/2253848/thickening-ice-raises-worries.html
January 9th, 2012 11:10 PM
A Coast Guard spokesman said Monday that an icebreaker and a fuel tanker are encountering “some really dynamic ice” that is slowing the mission and sometimes forcing both vessels to come to a complete stop.
The plan was for the two ships to deliver fuel to Nome on Monday but because of the icy conditions, that arrival date is off. Coast Guard officials are not saying when they expect the vessels to arrive but it could be later this week.
“The dynamics of things make it a pretty intense transit,” Cmdr. Greg Tlapa, the executive officer of the Healy, told The Associated Press by satellite phone Monday afternoon as the icebreaker was about 111 miles south-southwest of Nome.
He described conditions outside the Healy’s bridge much like the surface of the moon: nearly 100 percent snow coverage, occasional ridging and “lots of rubble all around.”
The Healy is trying to keep the Renda 0.3 miles behind the Coast Guard cutter as it breaks through 3 feet of ice. But the ice conditions are changing constantly and when they reach heavier ice, the path is closing between the two ships.
Whoever decided to delay made a bad choice which is going to cost them more than they were betting they would save.
I think that has been made obvious to all involved.
But I do understand, when you buy your fuel a year at at time, price at buying time becomes rather important. And they had a couple items beyond their control work against them at the same time.
Even this slow ice breaker is cheaper than flying it in. And Nome is in better shape than some other Western Alaska villages who have nearly run out of fuel. Before winter is over, there will be others I suspect given the early ice, storm and last deliveries not made.
Noatak and Kobuk have just about run out of fuel oil
http://www.adn.com/2012/01/09/2254899/noatak-and-kobuk-have-just-about.html
The Inupiat village of Noatak, where temperatures dipped to 45 below or colder each of the past three days, ran out of heating oil Saturday at the village store, residents say. Elder Bernice Monroe said her 78-year-old husband drove a snowmachine to nearby Red Dog Mine to buy a drum of fuel, while the store borrowed drums from the utility pump house and began rationing sales to 10 gallons per family.
People called each other on the VHF radio asking if anyone has fuel to sell or share, said Noatak resident Hilda Booth. “My husband and I are using our fish rack woods to heat up our home because it’s so cold to go out and get wood.”
Bout time the nuclear technology used in naval powerplants got reconfigured as generators for these outa the way places. Makes too much sense.
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