News
A new invention at Lake Metigoshe
Scott Wagar
05/15/2012
Anyone who has been around Lake Metigoshe this past week might have thought they saw the Lock Ness monster making its way across the lake. However, the History Channel’s “Monster Quest” will not be coming up to the lake to investigate this intriguing looking thing pushing through the water; but, a crew from “Modern Marvels” just might be making its way up to Metigoshe after they learn about Al Wondrasek and Bill Houim.
Wondrasek and Houim, residents of Lake Metigoshe, have come together and created one monster of a lake barge, which the two men are using to install docks and pontoon lifts with this spring.
“Bill and I talked about this for about three years, but this is all Bill’s invention,” Wondrasek said. “And, it’s an incredible machine, just incredible.”
Houim said that he came up with the idea a few years back when he saw Al and his employees placing in docks and lifts manually.
“I saw Al and all those kids struggling to put in docks and lifts, and I thought there had to be a better way to do this,” Houim said.
After talking about it for a while, the idea of the barge came to be. Houim then took the idea to an engineer and welder who worked out the finer details of the ship. From there Houim and his crew fabricated the barge at his company, Central Trenching, Inc.(CTI) in Minot.
It took eight months to build the barge, but the process wasn’t smooth sailing for the water barge.
“After building it, I brought it up here to do a test run on it, but the buoyancy wasn’t right on it,” Houim said. “So, we took it back to Minot and added some pieces to it and now it’s like walking on land when you’re on the lake.”
The barge weighs 60,000 pounds; has four stabilizer legs which can also lift the barge eight feet off the ground; a crane with a boom that weighs 9,500 pounds and reaches out 96 feet from the boat; two different lifts for the different type of jobs the barge does; and it can haul 20,000 pounds.
“One of the lifts can install or remove an 80-foot dock,” Houim said, who added that they transport the barge with a semi-trailer. Houim uses the stabilizer legs to lift the barge up eight feet and he then backs the trailer under the boat.
Houim then lowers the barge on to the trailer and transports it. He does the same routine when unloading the barge.
“We just lift it up and drive the trailer away. In fact, I’ve driven my own truck under it when we have it that high.”
For Wondrasek, the barge is a blessing to him.
“Before hand, I needed around 10 guys to put a dock or lift in. There was a lot of manual work involved and it normally took us an hour to install a pontoon lift. Now we can do a job with anywhere from two to six people and it takes less than five minutes to install a pontoon lift,” Wondrsek said. “And, after 13 years of doing this job, I’ve been beaten up pretty bad. Before the barge, I couldn’t do this type of work more than four days in a week, now I can work everyday of the week and all day long.”
Besides dock and lift work, Houim stated the barge can lift, carry or install anything in the water.
“If it is in the water, we can take care of it,” Houim said, who recently removed a sea wall out of Lake Metigoshe.