Three workers on a New Jersey beach replenishment project were injured Monday when a pipe burst on their dredge Monday, according to the Coast Guard.
The CR McCaskill, a 230’x62’x14’ suction cutter dredge, was working off Seaside Park, N.J., when the accident was reported around 2:40 p.m. The burst was loud enough to be heard onshore in the busy boardwalk resort, where local police got initial reports of a possible explosion.
Three workers were evacuated from the dredge with a crewboat and brought ashore at the Coast Guard Manasquan station at Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., where local first aid squads transported them for medical attention. NBC New York reported that a coupling may have failed as the men were working on the aft deck of the dredge.
Weeks Marine, Cranford, N.J., is in the midst of a $128 million Corps of Engineers beach replenishment project along 14 miles of the New Jersey coast. The CR McCaskill was working near the 206.4’x62’x12.5’ cutter suction dredge EW Ellefsen about two miles offshore, mining sand from a designated borrow area and pumping it in a slurry by pipeline for placement on the beach.
