The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1945-07-31
Parkway
Continued from Page u


this project so close to the lives
and well-being OF million per-
sons in Metropolitan Detroit.
One of the Three Brothers"
first jobs on the Great Lakes was
building the seawall at Selfridge
Field in the late 1905, thereby
hating the perennial spring
flooding that made the home of
the First Pursuit Group a sea of
mud.
Later, the limerick brothers
dredge. then owned by Ray p.
Limerick, left for Sault Ste Ma
RE in the summer of 1882 10 wild
EN- and deepen the ST. Mary'S
River channel. The outfit later
worked at Green Bay, Wis, and
became the property of the Price
Brothers.
The return Of the Three
Brothers" to Huron Pointe has
its sentimental side. Tied beside
her is the tug Stella the same
sturdy auxiliary vessel that help
ed tow her to the 500.
CREATES ISLAND
Moved here from its last job
at Algonac, the big hydraulic
dredge was set up early this
month and pumped its first cubic
yard Of dirt on July 16. In the
intervening time, large sandy
island, the fill or dump, has
been created on the curving
beach, Bulldozers level off the
high spots while so pipeline lab
orers extend the heavy pipes TO
spread the muck which will turn
into sand under the suns power
full rays.
Each l20-foot swing Of the cut
ter-head is the beginning of
sand-covered beach will be 400
feet in width along its l,600foot
length.
Borings taken of the lake bot
tom during the winter of l943-44
reveal that from a depth of Is
feet down the undertake COM
position is either medium or fine
gray sand. The deeper borings
produced blue clay, and hard
pan was encountered at 80 feet
below the lake.
Engineers chose the Huron
Pointe location because boringS
revealed negligible amount of
peat moss and muck at this point
in the lake. and the fill which
will raise the elevation of the
beach will be washed sand OF
good grade.
STAGGERING TONNAGE
Pumping sand at the rate of
many thousands of cubic yards a
day, the big dredge has operated
"a hours day, six days week
since its shiny diesel engines
geared their $50 horsepower into
the giant suction pump which
draws water and sand up the
60 feet or more of intake pipe
Only on Sundays is the marine
powerhouse given a rest, when
the night shift peels off its hip
boots at 8 a. m.
During this interval, the hot,
smoking machinery is doctored
by alert chief engineer Axel
Lindras, while the actual dredge
operators--the men who tire
lessly handle the half-dozen lev
ers up on the "bridge"-check
over their cables, drums, cutter
head and other vital parts. The
three operators on duty are Ar
thur Roberts "a dredgeman with
experience building docks in
Ireland and Alaska), and Peter
Larson and Charles Cole.
Captain" of the outfit is slen-
der, sun-tanned George Comrie,
whose home is Miami Beach.
Comrie has followed the Price
Brothers fortunes for many
years, and responsibility for the
Three Brothers" operation rests
evenly between him and project
superintendent Fred Taylor.
EXPERT DIRECTION
The dredge employs five men
in a supervisory capacity:-l1
skilled engineers and deck hands
and so unskilled crewmen.
Company representative Jerry
Smock handles their problems OF
equipment, supplies and payroll,
and veteran sailor Clarence
Coutcher is skipper of the work
boat which took the writer on a
survey of the large dredging OPP
erations.
Frequent visitors at the pro-