The Construction Thread

[Byron In Exile]

That calls for a youtube video.

I think so, too.

 

[rosco rathbone]

I've carried a camera with me on many jobs, but you never seem to whip it out when something fun is happening, although I did get a lot of amazing shots of the towers burning on 9-11.

 

[Byron In Exile]

I have a great uncle who was there, and dived under a park bench when the second building was hit. He said that the most awful moments of his life were hearing those bodies, of the people that had jumped, hit the pavement.

You can share your pictures, or not. That's up to you.

 

[dolf]

What does not kill us makes us stronger.

and greener.

You don't know what fun is until you use a torch to cut an elevator loose on the 5th floor.

It made such a bang that the cops came.

envy.
lots of envy.

 

[tactful]

If they build it, will it employ everyone, or just the blue collar workers.

 

[thør]

Forgive me for missing the Inedible Hulk reference.

There were only a handful of mishaps. For the most part the poison went into the big metal boxes. The buildings were stuffed full of many different mechanical systems. It was the most interesting and challenging job I have ever had. I was also very happy on the last day knowing I would never have to return.

Somewhere, there is a huge pile of B25 boxes, each tagged and filled with contaminated junk.....

 

[off2bed]

Contractor A

Claimed I owed him $500 out of a $1500 fee on a porch addition for which I produced Permit Drawings. I told him repeatedly that he never once mentioned anything about a commission, finder's fee, or anything. He said I was ripping him off, after all the jobs he'd sent my way (all two or three of them ), none of which ever involved a kickback to the contractor.

He said he might have to come over and kick my ass, so I told him I might have to call the cops to say I was being threatened. He hung up on me.

Called back a little later, apparently realizing he'd stepped in his own shit, and said, "you must need the money more than I do, we just won't do any more business with you." Oooooh, I'm so disappointed.

Contractor A is also the pastor of a Baptist ministry.

Contractor B:

Had me do drawings for a doctor's office. The building owner was responsible for providing a one hour rated wall separating it from the next tenant. Contractor B was to build it and get reimbursed for the cost, since it wasn't part of the doctor's office project scope. He needed a drawing for the building inspector, so I charged a measly $495. His words were, "I'll get you paid."

Five months after the construction is complete, I finally get through on the phone after sending an invoice every month, leaving phone messages, and such. He, too, thinks I owe him a freebie for sending work my way (work no one ever mentioned his name in connection with), and that the $495 was too much. As if he was Mr. Big Shot (he's not even fully licensed and has to have someone else act as GC), he too said he wouldn't send me any more work. Every other word from him was "fucking." He ended with, "Fuck you," and I reciprocated.

 

[thør]

Contractor A

Contractor B:

Bozo wannabes........

 

[rosco rathbone]

Contractor A

Claimed I owed him $500 out of a $1500 fee on a porch addition for which I produced Permit Drawings. I told him repeatedly that he never once mentioned anything about a commission, finder's fee, or anything. He said I was ripping him off, after all the jobs he'd sent my way (all two or three of them ), none of which ever involved a kickback to the contractor.

He said he might have to come over and kick my ass, so I told him I might have to call the cops to say I was being threatened. He hung up on me.

Called back a little later, apparently realizing he'd stepped in his own shit, and said, "you must need the money more than I do, we just won't do any more business with you." Oooooh, I'm so disappointed.

Contractor A is also the pastor of a Baptist ministry.

Contractor B:

Had me do drawings for a doctor's office. The building owner was responsible for providing a one hour rated wall separating it from the next tenant. Contractor B was to build it and get reimbursed for the cost, since it wasn't part of the doctor's office project scope. He needed a drawing for the building inspector, so I charged a measly $495. His words were, "I'll get you paid."

Five months after the construction is complete, I finally get through on the phone after sending an invoice every month, leaving phone messages, and such. He, too, thinks I owe him a freebie for sending work my way (work no one ever mentioned his name in connection with), and that the $495 was too much. As if he was Mr. Big Shot (he's not even fully licensed and has to have someone else act as GC), he too said he wouldn't send me any more work. Every other word from him was "fucking." He ended with, "Fuck you," and I reciprocated.

So much skullduggery goes on. I had to quit the company that tried to make me a foreman. I couldn't handle all the shady shit I had to do.

 

[off2bed]

So much skullduggery goes on. I had to quit the company that tried to make me a foreman. I couldn't handle all the shady shit I had to do.

After I quit the country's design-build leader five years ago, I heard all the stories about the shit they pulled on subs. A big famous name means nothing.

 

[chillywilly2]

I just got asked by the GC on a large project, to hide the cost that would be to them of a mistake they made, in the cost of fixing another subs mistake.

 

[rosco rathbone]

I'm too damn honest. It gave me nightmares just padding the T&M bills and lying to the hall about all the company men on the job. I don't even want to think about what goes on at a higher level.

 

[chillywilly2]

So far it was just hinted at...when I hear more, I will decide just how to respond.

 

[rosco rathbone]

thor: <0>-------------> see.

A question for you thor, since we are on the topic of tunnels.

They are boring a new tunnel under the east river, connecting the LIRR to Grand Central Station. The tunnel entrance for construction purposes is just to the west of the train tracks. If you put this in Google Satellite:

29th street and 40th rd queens

And zoom in, then scroll down a little, you'll see the rig and the yard and the hole. On the other side of the tracks, in the SUnnyside Train Yard, they are putting the approach proper. In that photo, it's just a blank whitish area next to a white building with slitty horizontal windows and a water tower.

Anyway, first they put slurry walls in, then dug down about 50 feet, creating a huge concrete bathtub that will hold the tracks going down to the tunnel. Then they put those big steel tubes in that you can see in the other hole to hold up the walls. They let the whole thing fill up with water, which sat there for a couple of years and was dark brown as you can imagine.

Going by there today, I saw that the water is still there, but now it is clear as a swimming pool and greenish-blue as if it had been filtered and chlorinated. Why would they do that?

 

[thør]

A question for you thor, since we are on the topic of tunnels.

They are boring a new tunnel under the east river, connecting the LIRR to Grand Central Station. The tunnel entrance for construction purposes is just to the west of the train tracks. If you put this in Google Satellite:

29th street and 40th rd queens

And zoom in, then scroll down a little, you'll see the rig and the yard and the hole. On the other side of the tracks, in the SUnnyside Train Yard, they are putting the approach proper. In that photo, it's just a blank whitish area next to a white building with slitty horizontal windows and a water tower.

Anyway, first they put slurry walls in, then dug down about 50 feet, creating a huge concrete bathtub that will hold the tracks going down to the tunnel. Then they put those big steel tubes in that you can see in the other hole to hold up the walls. They let the whole thing fill up with water, which sat there for a couple of years and was dark brown as you can imagine.

Going by there today, I saw that the water is still there, but now it is clear as a swimming pool and greenish-blue as if it had been filtered and chlorinated. Why would they do that?

I can imagine the water being dark brown at first, and if it sat there for a couple of years, the sediment might have dropped out. If it was time to dewater the hole, then they might have added a flocculant to cause the suspended solids to clump up and drop out. Then, it's easier to meet clean water discharge criteria. I'm just guessing.

 

[rosco rathbone]

I can imagine the water being dark brown at first, and if it sat there for a couple of years, the sediment might have dropped out. If it was time to dewater the hole, then they might have added a flocculant to cause the suspended solids to clump up and drop out. Then, it's easier to meet clean water discharge criteria. I'm just guessing.

That must be it. WIth all the rain and shit washing in there, there's no way that natural processes cleaned the water.

 

[thør]

That must be it. WIth all the rain and shit washing in there, there's no way that natural processes cleaned the water.

The must have a bottom liner in that hole and I bet it's pretty gooey on top of it.....

 

[rosco rathbone]

The must have a bottom liner in that hole and I bet it's pretty gooey on top of it.....

I'll try to take a pic or a vid with my cam when the train goes by the hole next time. The whole thing is weird looking.

 

[thør]

I'll try to take a pic or a vid with my cam when the train goes by the hole next time. The whole thing is weird looking.

I've only worked on a couple of tunnels........and none installed like that one was.......

 

[rosco rathbone]

I've only worked on a couple of tunnels........and none installed like that one was.......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Side_Access

Construction of the line to Grand Central was begun in November 1969 (see IND 63rd Street Line) as the lower level of a cut-and-cover project to build the New York City Subway's 63rd St Line. The MTA's contractor floated premanufactured four-chamber tunnel boxes into place in the East River and sank them to create the East River crossings for the subway and the LIRR. After a long delay caused by New York City's fiscal collapse of the 1970s, the 63rd St subway line and LIRR tunnel were completed as far as 21 St in Long Island City. Between 1995 and 2001, the 63rd St subway line was connected to the Queens Blvd. corridor, and the LIRR tunnel was extended under 41 Avenue in Queens to the west side of Northern Blvd. The western end of this tunnel sat under Second Avenue at 63 Street.

The current East Side Access Project represents the construction effort to complete the line to Grand Central Terminal. After voters in New York approved a bond issue to provide state funds to the project, the federal government committed to provide $2.6 billion to help build the East Side Access project by signing a Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) in December 2006.[3] The construction contract for a one-mile tunnel in Manhattan west and southward from the long dormant lower level of the 63rd Street rail tunnel to the new station beneath Grand Central terminal was awarded on July 13, 2006, to Dragados/Judlau, a joint American-Spanish venture (the American company is located in College Point, Queens, NY).[4] The total contract award is $430 million,[4] and is utilizing two large tunneling devices owned by the Spanish firm.[5]

Judlau created a launch chamber for tunnel boring machines under Second Avenue at 63rd St using a controlled drill-and-blast method, then assembled and launched each 640-ton machine. The first TBM was launched west and southbound from the 63rd Street tunnel in September 2007 and reached Grand Central in July 2008[6]. The second machine began boring a parallel tunnel in December 2007 and had completed its tunnel at 37th Street September 30, 2008[7][8] Geocomp Corporation was hired to monitor the boring, using a battery of instruments to record vibration, ground settlement and any tilting or drift suffered by the TBM. The instruments include inclinometers, extensometers, seismographs, observation wells, dynamic strain gauges, tilt meters and automated motorized total stations (AMTS) with prismatic targets[9]. The next step in construction is to back the TBMs out of the tunnels and cast-in-place concrete sections placed to create the lining.[10] Each tunnel will be 22 feet in diameter and carry trains 140 feet beneath street level.[11] The TBMs bored an average of 50 feet per day. Cross-connections between the tunnels are being created under Park Avenue, between 49th Street and 51st Street, by controlled drill-and-blast; the work began in mid-July 2008 and was expected to require between six and eight months to complete.[12]

In Queens, Pile Foundation Construction Company is building an $83 million open-cut and deck project, which is extending the tracks under Northern Blvd into Sunnyside Yard, and creating an area that serves as both the launch chamber for soft-bore Queens tunnels, connecting the 63rd St line to the main LIRR branches, and an interlocking and emergency exit and venting facility.[13].[14] Perini Corporation was awarded a $161 million contract to reconfigure Harold Interlocking, increasing its capacity to accommodate Grand Central-bound trains and accept new yard lead tracks to allow trains to enter the storage yards. On February 15, 2008, MTA awarded Dragados-Judlau a $499 million contract to excavate the LIRR station cavern and track wye caverns

 

[thør]

some big names in there.......

 

[thør]

From the WSJ via the ASCE Smart Brief:

"President Barack Obama's administration is learning that timetables for some shovel-ready projects eligible for stimulus funds are longer than expected. Construction on a shovel-ready bridge in Pennsylvania, for example, will not begin for nearly four months. State officials note that it takes time to advertise the project, collect bids and begin work."

Or, one could just hire Halliburton.

 

[Saint Peter]

Four whole months?

What's the rush?

 

[thør]

What's the rush?

A promise made is a debt unpaid......

 

[Saint Peter]

Somewhere, there is a huge pile of B25 boxes, each tagged and filled with contaminated junk.....

Some are in New Mexico. Some are in Utah. Don't ask me which are which or I will have to kill you.