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They've been working on the railroad
By adamg on Thu, 03/18/2010 - 8:47am
MassDOT provided this photo of workers busy repairing the flooded-out Riverside track bed yesterday. Compare to the photos from the height of the nor'easter. The state expects to have service restored by Monday.
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Comments
some of them have been working on the railroad
that guy with his hands in his pockets must be on break. i cant tell what the other 11 guys are not doing.
I guess that stone was
I guess that stone was teleported into place.
... in that case I hope
... in that case I hope you're not posting this while at your place of employment.
7 guys, total. When you're
7 guys, total. When you're operating a machine capable of killing someone with one slip, or lifting things heavy enough to crush a car, let alone a person, it's probably a good idea to have someone spotting for you. Tomorrow morning, wake up at 5am, get outside just before the sun comes up, and then find 200 pounds to move back and forth. See how much energy you have by noon. Maybe you want to take a break? Nope, someone might decide you don't work hard enough. Have a little respect for the guys who make your world go round. Or, move somewhere with no roads, sewers, plumbing, buildings or bridges.
you need 4 people
1 to spot (make him your on-sit engineer to kill two birds with one stone), 2 to shovel the gravel around, 1 to operate the machine. Done!
Yet we have a photo showing about 7 people standing around one backhoe. What are the other three guys doing?
Look Again
I think they are the team working with the OTHER backhoe.
Now go back to your basement and get to work.
Safety?
I am fairly suprised that this photo got released given the fact that not a single person is wearing a hard hat. Maybe the MBTA has different policies, but I am an engineer that works on construction sites fairly frequently, and you rarely see people without them - it's a common sense piece of safety equipment.
In addition, there appears to be people working in a trench on the left side of the page. Its hard to tell how deep it is, and exactly whats goin on - but at first glance it appears (based on where the tracks are in relation to the person with thait back turned to us) that the trench is nearing 4-5 feet deep, and has neither the proper shoring nor a means of egress.
Construction accidents can be avoided.... hopefully someone at the MBTA sees this and issues some sort of response/clarification.
Not to say they necessarily
Not to say they necessarily are taking proper precautions, but the trench is the reason they are there. There was a culvert that washed out under the tracks and opened into a wide/deep trench. You can't exactly expect a made by nature trench to have the proper safety structures in place. That's why the line is closed, and the crew is there -- to turn something that isn't safe into something that is.
No
The trench is for the 250-foot drain pipe they're installing to run the water down the track towards the bog instead of directly into the side of the trackbed which caused the washout.
(I'm the original safety
(I'm the original safety question poster - need to sign up I guess)
If the trench had been there due to the washout, then it's likely even less safe to be in there without shoring. Shoring can be installed regardless of how the trench was formed. I am a geotechnical engineer, so I deal with soils, trenches, foundations all day long.
In any event, I just hope that safe construction site practices are being used - and I would like for someone from the MBTA to comment. Every construction worker should leave a job site in the same physical condition they entered it... THINK SAFETY
so 7 guys standing around a bucket scoop
...and one guy actually working the machine?
2 guys in the hole, 1 guy left of center, and 2 guys between the tracks. How many people does it take to spread some goddamn gravel? And why does it take a week to do so with so many people on the job?
Seriously?
Let's see, when I worked construction, we had a crew of 4 to hang light fixtures in a school room (1 to prep the fixtures off the palette, 1 to run them to the ladders, 2 to hang and wire them in the ceiling)...and that wasn't anywhere near as difficult a job as backfilling a hole while being sure not to damage the tracks at all....AND laying in a drain pipe....AND doing it all in less than a week.
So, seriously, shut the hell up. I was impressed when they said they'd repair the culvert, tracks, and drainage problem in under a week and I've worked similar situations before on new construction to know it's a pretty impressive schedule.
I too am quite impressed by
I too am quite impressed by how quickly they say this project will be done. It strikes me as rather complex and dangerous. If it weren't for the fact that so many commuters depend on the D-line, I'd assume a much longer time line.
Ditto
When I heard the time frame I assumed that they would be making some sort of quicky temporary repair, not actually attempting to solve the problem entirely! If they run over a week, yet solve the problem, we will get our money's worth out of every worker here.
May be temporary
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/art...
But it's still an impressive timeframe.
My Guess
The two guys in the hole, and maybe the guy dead center, are spreading the gravel as it's dumped. The guy in front of the machine is a spotter for when the machine trundles back and forth getting the gravel. You don't want the heavy machinery to kill someone by going through what you're trying to fix, after all. There appears to be another machine on the other track. The two guys over there have something to do with that, I suppose.
I'm all for cutting down on waste, but I can't see a lot of it here. Maybe I'm missing something?
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Get the Clue Train
There are some serious risks here that are being reduced by staff. That truck goes into that hole and the guys compacting the fill are dead, and the operator too. It gets too close to the hole, the unstable edge slumps, and the guys at the bottom die that way. You obviously know nothing about heavy construction or basic safety regulations.
Better yet, why don't you volunteer for the job at the bottom of the hole and use your little gaming controller to make the machine scoop the gravel. Maybe somebody will dig you out tomorrow.
Photos from today
Here (wonder if any of them are yelling "Heave HO!"? and here.
Gandy dancers!
Well, not really, but they look a bit like the gandy dancers that my grandfather used to work with for the MoPac. That makes me oddly happy.