First pieces of tsunami dock carted away
NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — Two pieces of a concrete dock that floated from Japan to an Oregon beach have been loaded onto trucks and carried away to be salvaged.
After initial headaches, crews continued making progress Saturday on breaking up the boxcar-sized dock, which broke free from a Japanese fishing port during last year's tsunami. Salvage crews had one cut left to make and three pieces left to carry away.
Scott Karob of Ballard Diving and Salvage said Saturday that the Agate Beach near Newport was crowded with people enjoying the warm weather, and crews were trying to control traffic and crowds so nobody was hurt.
The dock will be trucked in five pieces to a yard in Sherwood, southwest of Portland, where it will be broken down into gravel for paving parking lots.
That must be some lightweight 'concrete'. Most concrete that I'm familiar with sinks...so how did a concrete filled dock float nearly 10,000 miles. Maybe that is why they didn't call in the Navy to sink it like the New Carrissa!