What did you do today? Here's what I did....

[gregintenn]

We sat concrete box beams for a bridge over Defeated Creek in Smith county. These beams were 80' long, and weigh 56,000 lbs each. That was one big crane! It is quite a feat for the truck driver to navigate narrow country roads with an 80' load. With the right equipment, placing them is actually the easy part.

Edited February 15, 2012 by gregintenn

[Fourtyfive]

That's one heafty piece of concrete.

[Timestepper]

Well, I delivered 60' epoxy coated (the green stuff in your pics) rebar to the bridge jobsite on the Wolf River on the Northwest side of Memphis, then loaded 48,000 pounds of angle iron in Jackson and delivered it to a tiny little place way back in the woods north of Decatur, Tn., but it wasn't nearly as spectacular as what you did. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I did anything impressive enough at work to justify taking a picture of it.

[gregintenn]

Well, I delivered 60' epoxy coated (the green stuff in your pics) rebar to the bridge jobsite on the Wolf River on the Northwest side of Memphis, then loaded 48,000 pounds of angle iron in Jackson and delivered it to a tiny little place way back in the woods north of Decatur, Tn., but it wasn't nearly as spectacular as what you did. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I did anything impressive enough at work to justify taking a picture of it.

Who do you work for, if you don't mind me asking? I actually didn't do anything impressive; I mostly just stood around and watched. I just thought someone might find it interesting. I did.

Edited February 15, 2012 by gregintenn

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I love work. Work is so fascinating I can watch it for hours. Would have been great to watch em put those big beams in.

[Oh Shoot]

I love work. Work is so fascinating I can watch it for hours. ...

I can even nap right beside it.

- OS

[strickj]

I actually didn't do anything impressive; I mostly just stood around and watched. I just thought someone might find it interesting. I did.

Yup, city employee here

[Timestepper]

Who do you work for, if you don't mind me asking? I actually didn't do anything impressive; I mostly just stood around and watched. I just thought someone might find it interesting. I did.

I pull a flatbed for Dark Star Transportation out of Knoxville.

Didn't mean to demean your pics and OP or anything, it really is pretty spectacular. I guess I've just hauled so many OD (over-dimensional) loads to so many jobsites in the past 25 years that I've gotten kind of cynical and jaded. I remember, several years ago when I drove for a company out of Salina, Ks. and we were hauling 15'10" X 70' truss sections (One section per truck, 3 loads equaled 1 HUGE truss) to Pope AFB in North Carolina to build a C-130 hangar... I got so tired of people asking me what we were hauling that I started making stuff up - told one guy in Kentucky that we were hauling motor mounts for the world's largest internal combustion engine... and he BELIEVED me!

[gregintenn]

What you consider mundane because you do it every day can be interesting to others. I've never hauled anything much larger than a bass boat, so I think it would be pretty neat to get to drive a big truck sometime. I would, however, need to turn off your CB radio. Those things make my brain bleed!

Edited February 16, 2012 by gregintenn

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I'm honestly in admiration of giant civil engineering projects.

Long ago me&wife&kid took a vacation at Fontana Dam. Beautiful territory.

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Fontana_Dam

Any good sized dam deserves respect. Maybe numerous dams have been constructed in remote hostile locations. Dunno much about it.

Driving up to Fontana, even today, involves many miles of 2 lane roads. Numerous curves and switchbacks, following scrub-mountain terrain. A beautiful drive though it is advisable to keep an eye on the road rather than sight seeing.

Fontana isn't the biggest dam but is fairly remote even today. When I was touring the dam and studying old pictures of the construction site-- Even with modern machinery it might be a challenge, but it is hard to imagine the difficulties of building that thang using 1940's era equipment, imagining how bad roads and access must have been back then.

Edited February 16, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[gregintenn]

I'm honestly in admiration of giant civil engineering projects.

Long ago me&wife&kid took a vacation at Fontana Dam. Beautiful territory.

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Fontana_Dam

Any good sized dam deserves respect. Maybe numerous dams have been constructed in remote hostile locations. Dunno much about it.

Driving up to Fontana, even today, involves many miles of 2 lane roads. Numerous curves and switchbacks, following scrub-mountain terrain. A beautiful drive though it is advisable to keep an eye on the road rather than sight seeing.

Fontana isn't the biggest dam but is fairly remote even today. When I was touring the dam and studying old pictures of the construction site-- Even with modern machinery it might be a challenge, but it is hard to imagine the difficulties of building that thang using 1940's era equipment, imagining how bad roads and access must have been back then.

My wife and I went to Las Vegas, and she was amazed that Hoover Dam was the most interesting thing I found there. It doesn't take a lot to entertain me I suppose.

[Timestepper]

What you consider mundane because you do it every day can be interesting to others. I've never hauled anything much larger than a bass boat, so I think it would be pretty neat to get to drive a big truck sometime. I would, however, need to turn off your CB radio. Those things make my brain bleed!

Actually, you wouldn't need to turn mine off because the only time I ever have it on is when I'm running with somebody or trying to get some information about traffic/road conditions. Lot of guys use it as a toy, but some of us still use it as a tool.

[10-Ring]

I'm honestly in admiration of giant civil engineering projects.

Long ago me&wife&kid took a vacation at Fontana Dam. Beautiful territory.

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Fontana_Dam

Any good sized dam deserves respect. Maybe numerous dams have been constructed in remote hostile locations. Dunno much about it.

Driving up to Fontana, even today, involves many miles of 2 lane roads. Numerous curves and switchbacks, following scrub-mountain terrain. A beautiful drive though it is advisable to keep an eye on the road rather than sight seeing.

Fontana isn't the biggest dam but is fairly remote even today. When I was touring the dam and studying old pictures of the construction site-- Even with modern machinery it might be a challenge, but it is hard to imagine the difficulties of building that thang using 1940's era equipment, imagining how bad roads and access must have been back then.

That's my turf! Fontana Dam is quite amazing. It is actually the tallest dam East of the Mississippi River. 530 feet if I'm not mistaken. I hope you saw it from the bottom and the top, really cool place!

[peejman]

I'm honestly in admiration of giant civil engineering projects. ...

Civil engineers build targets. Mechanical engineers (me) build weapons.

[jtmaze]

Civil engineers build targets. Mechanical engineers (me) build weapons.

[gregintenn]

Civil engineers build targets. Mechanical engineers (me) build weapons.

Great line!!!

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Civil engineers build targets. Mechanical engineers (me) build weapons.

Great point! Wonder if there is some other profession which could convert it in into some sort of rock-paper-scissors dynamic? ME beats CE, CE beats XX, XX beats ME?

[gregintenn]

Great point! Wonder if there is some other profession which could convert it in into some sort of rock-paper-scissors dynamic? ME beats CE, CE beats XX, XX beats ME?

OSHA?

[peejman]

Great point! Wonder if there is some other profession which could convert it in into some sort of rock-paper-scissors dynamic? ME beats CE, CE beats XX, XX beats ME?

There's a bathroom in the basement of the ME building (Brown Hall) at TTU. In the far stall, there was a sign over the tp dispenser that said "EE degree, take one." We coined the phrase... "gotta go get my EE degree, back in a few." Even the professors thought it was funny.

I don't know if OSHA trumps ME, but I'm quite sure that EBITDA trumps us all on a regular basis.

I'll freely admit that CE's create some really cool stuff and have some neat toys to play with. The construction process can be like watching paint dry, but the end results are really neat. Case in point...

Edited February 17, 2012 by peejman

[Good_Steward]

I don't know if OSHA trumps ME, but I'm quite sure that EBITDA trumps us all on a regular basis.

lol - the bean counters always win at the end....

[Timestepper]

I think my biggest problem is that the jobsites I've thought were spectacular enough to actually take pictures of wouldn't allow a camera on the jobsite - even phone cameras and the cameras we carry in our "accident kits" had to be surrendered at the gate and picked up on the way out.

[buck1032]

I did nothing all day yesterday, and I didnt get it all done. So I had to start all over today.