Another reason I don't like construction surveying

[AlanC]

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/08/29/deadly-scaffolding-collapse/1130837002/

It can be dangerous. My son has almost been run over several times by bobcats (small dozers), cranes, side by sides, etc. We are occasionally working the project in the story. The large waterpark we recently finished had several near tragedies where scaffolding collapsed but the workers had their safety harasses attached and were rescued after dangling from over 200' off the ground.

[RickW]

Construction in general. At times I wish I had had a job that as more physical, and allowed me to spend time outside. Then I realize that for the most part, I was a lot safer, warmer, and drier.

[Marshall]

Putting buildings together is much riskier than the final product. Most times the most stress a structure will see is when it's being put together. Plus there are all these gangbusters running around, each on his own mission, handling dangerous equipment, with little or no supervision except, "Get it done, dammmit!"


I've done some subcontract work for contractors I know designing scaffolds and temporary structures. Always the scariest part of what I've done. So much can go wrong.

[Cosmic Wonder]

They say hard work never killed anyone. They lied.

Mike

[AlanC]

We are also monitoring a huge ass pedestrian bridge being constructed over the I-4 in Maitland Fla. It is much larger than the one that collapsed in Miami. They are about to start shoving things out over the roadway and we have to tell them if all is well. I don't much like doing that either.

[Rob Hanesworth]

I read somewhere, may not be true, that most large building projects budget for a couple of deaths.

Safety equipment has, of course, improved, but those old films of ironworkers scrambling around on high beams scare the crap out of me.

[Marshall]

Aug 29, 2018 12:02:19 GMT -5 Rob Hanesworth said:

I read somewhere, may not be true, that most large building projects budget for a couple of deaths.

Safety equipment has, of course, improved, but those old films of ironworkers scrambling around on high beams scare the crap out of me.

That would be wrong. At least in the US. The complications, and legal expense, and insurance costs, and project delays associated with any serious workplace accident will wreck any budget and schedule.

[dradtke]

Aug 29, 2018 12:02:19 GMT -5 Rob Hanesworth said:

I read somewhere, may not be true, that most large building projects budget for a couple of deaths.

Safety equipment has, of course, improved, but those old films of ironworkers scrambling around on high beams scare the crap out of me.

My uncle Albert was one of those ironworkers in Chicago, and spent his entire career walking the girders in any weather. As he tells it, he was working on a 40-story building and fell off, and his only injury was a broken ankle. Of course, he was working on the first floor at the time.

[brucemacneill]

My least favorite construction surveying project was replacing failed septic systems at housing projects. Worse would have been the bulldozer operator who couldn't walk away occasionally.

Construction surveying in Antarctica wasn't much fun either but since everything was frozen nothing had an odor. Wouldn't have wanted to be one of the steel workers sitting on the -20 degree I-beams putting in the bolts though. Once the foundation blocks were level I could go back inside.

[fauxmaha]

I spent a few hours Monday night pushing dirt around my backyard with a Bobcat.

Didn't kill anyone, but almost ran over the dog twice. You would have thought he would have learned his lesson after the first close call, but no.

[aquaduct]

Aug 29, 2018 13:29:48 GMT -5 fauxmaha said:

I spent a few hours Monday night pushing dirt around my backyard with a Bobcat.

Didn't kill anyone, but almost ran over the dog twice. You would have thought he would have learned his lesson after the first close call, but no.

My dog likes to fight with the lawn mower. I keep trying to tell her the odds really aren't in her favor but so far no luck.

[Cornflake]

I had an elderly electrician friend who had once installed electricity in restrooms on the Navajo Nation. He's thought to have been the first man to wire a head for a reservation.

[billhammond]

Aug 29, 2018 13:55:02 GMT -5 Cornflake said:

I had an elderly electrician friend who had once installed electricity in restrooms on the Navajo Nation. He's thought to have been the first man to wire a head for a reservation.

[brucemacneill]

Aug 29, 2018 13:55:02 GMT -5 Cornflake said:

I had an elderly electrician friend who had once installed electricity in restrooms on the Navajo Nation. He's thought to have been the first man to wire a head for a reservation.

I just stole that so I hope it's not copyrighted.

[Cornflake]

"I just stole that so I hope it's not copyrighted." I neglected to ask the dentist from whom I stole it.

[Village Idiot]

Aug 29, 2018 12:01:37 GMT -5 AlanC said:

We are also monitoring a huge ass pedestrian bridge being constructed over the I-4 in Maitland Fla. It is much larger than the one that collapsed in Miami. They are about to start shoving things out over the roadway and we have to tell them if all is well. I don't much like doing that either.

That would keep me up at night.


I've often wondered, when driving by the old Braille School which was built in the 1850s, how many people died during the construction of that building.

[Chesapeake]

To errant equipment and faulty scaffolding, add wind. My dad, a civil engineer and land surveyor, was part of the Coast and Geodetic Survey team that ascended the peak of the Washington Monument in 1934 to triangulate various landmarks in the city. It was the most accurate survey of the monument to that date, and stood as the authoritative one until the next was done in 2013-14 after the Virginia earthquake. I wish I had found out more about his experience before he died, but, like many a feckless kid, I wasn't thinking along those lines until he was gone.