Tag Archives: maintenance

Draining the Locks at Ballard

The gates on the locks in Ballard are getting old and they are due for replacement.  I had seen that they had drained the locks to start this process and went down to have a look.  However, they had finished the first phase of work and reopened the locks to traffic, so they were full again.  I was pretty disappointed but was told that there were more phases to come so I headed back at the beginning of the second phase.  They weren’t fully drained but most of the water was gone.  You could see the portals where the water flows when the locks are in use.

There are gates outside the normal gates which can be used to close off the water when the main gates need work done.  These were closed off.  The main gates are not the initial focus.  The intermediate gate is the first one to be replaced and it was already gone when I was there.  There will be more chances to check this out so I shall go back at some point.

Deception Pass Bridge Maintenance

While on our trip to Whidbey, we made a short stop at the North beach in Deception Pass State Park.  This is the beach that is closest to the bridge across the pass.  I was hoping it might be possible to get a nice shot of the bridge but I was disappointed to realize that the maintenance work underway on the bridge has resulted in the structure being covered in a ton of material.  No chance to get anything exciting from that.  If you looked closely, you could make out some of the maintenance team up on the bridge in their hi-viz clothing.  That is not a job for which I would be well suited.

Fixing the Wipers

This 767 was parked right beneath me at the terminal in Haneda.  The crew seemed busy at work fixing something on the wipers on the first officer’s windshield side.  I watched them at work for a while before they seemed happy to have the jet fixed and ready to go on its next service.

This Needs a Few More Bits

Erickson’s facility at Medford was the home for this Skycrane while I was there.  A team were working on it and, I imagine, they were getting it ready for the coming fire season.  At this point, though, it was still in need of a few parts.  It looked a bit lacking but I suspect the process of adding the remaining elements to get it back into an airworthy condition was not going to take that long.  Hopefully by now she is back in the air and working hard.