I'm an electrician and I got paid to stand on a job site for a whole month just to make sure nothing went wrong.. because down time would cost the company $10,000 an hour...
Buddy of mine works in the auto industry and has a similar setup. He programs the robots on the line to build X or Y but a lot of the time he's just sitting around in case something goes wrong. Because the cost of the line going down is in the hundreds of thousands every hour... Its weird thing but necessary >_
This is the joy of cybersec as well. Everyone ignores you until there's a problem, and then it's all your fault when it is. It's also almost always cheaper and more efficient to have 1 or 2 skilled supervisors, rather than making all 20-some odd workers have the training and expertise that would be required.
I moved about 800lbs of planks with my dad yesterday and it’s really surprising sometimes how hard it can be. Even though it was only for maybe an hour or two I needed a couple of breaks.
I asked a bunch of "standing around" workers one day why there were 4 guys watching one guy dig in the hole - the answer was "Only one person can fit in the hole". I then watched them swap diggers out every few minutes and got the hole dug a lot faster then a single guy could do it. 5 guys doing 1 minute of hard work moves more dirt then one guy digging hard for 5 minutes.
@@1pcfred Hire more hobbits! Problem solved! 😂 Addendum: Note that Dwarves are widely known for their subterranean excavation skills, but no way was I gonna go there.
Recently switched to a manual trade and the first thing that struck me is always being on display. Office workers take breaks, goof off, play on their phones, rest, stretch, sit back and think. It's all part of being human, as opposed to a robot. But tradesmen working outdoors are publicly visible all day. It's frustrating to work hard for 2 hours at something most people couldn't handle doing, only to take a 15 minute break and know all the people driving past are mentally accusing you of laziness.
@@yinggamer7762 It started as a sort of fever dream interpretation of the first Harry Potter novel when I was a child, from the hilarious school uniform anecdote. Why I still use it is harder to explain...
People often ask, "Is the glass half empty or half full?" The engineer responds, "The glass is twice as big as it needs to be." Cost/benefit analysis is engineering in a nutshell.
My general answer (to portray a sense of optimism) is "it doesn't matter how full or empty the glass is, what's important is that it's refillable." But I hadn't heard this one and really like it, I'll be sure to use it if/when I see a good opportunity lol
@@kyleparker733 I came up with it while in prison, and keeping that attitude has helped me to "refill" my life instead of letting my past keep me "half empty". Hopefully others can use it as motivation/inspiration to better their lives as well!
Used to work on paving roads long ago. This one time, the foreman who watches and measures the height of the paver was gone for about 30 mins. Little did they know the paver had dipped .5 inches during that time and that who section was ruined. Cost the company about $200k because that one person standing around monitoring the level of the paver was absent.
The words of a Superman that wants to fix the world himself. If you want that, start your own company. Quality comes from the top down, and construction is a job where people are told to work and not think. The foreman knows better than you do, the inspector knows better than the foreman, the engineer knows better than the inspector, the owner makes the decisions, not the engineer, and the owner bends over backwards for the client while trying to cut every corner possible so they do "just enough".
My whole job revolves around me being in a building making sure boilers are running. 99% of the time I do nothing but that other 1% saves us from losing the entire facility
Regarding the "foundation on bedrock" myth, Chilean here. Bedrock can move and it does, sometimes quite violently, so it isn't a guarantee of durability. There's an old church in Santiago (Iglesia de San Francisco), a very big building, only survivor from 16-17th century. The reason of its resilience against earthquakes was recently found: its foundations lay over a bed of round rocks deliberately placed there; the whole thing rolls over the rocks when there's a quake. That's engineering.
I work as a ‘scientist’ (whatever that means) for an engineering firm and spend 90% of time on construction sites standing around with traffic controllers, drillers, service locators and engineers waiting for one of the mess of contractors to figure out what’s going on so we can drill a couple holes, log some cores and get a couple samples. It’s like herding cats in a burning hedge maze….
@@heresjohnny602 Saying I’m a scientist is insulting to science. I used to work in research before I got into consulting. As a researcher I would actually apply the scientific method and what not, but most of my current job as a ‘scientist’ in an engineering firm is not actually science. It’s mainly helping clients navigate confusing regulatory frameworks and writing reports full of nicely worded bs so some multibillion company can say they did their environmental due diligence. ‘Scientific consultant’ would be a more accurate job description.
@@heresjohnny602 Ah, it must be fun taking issues with semantics. Seems as though OP understands exactly what his/her job requires, just not what they label his/her job as.
Many workers do a specific batch job and finishes it. They are required to remain present because they migh be needed for anothor batch. it's the nature of some jobs, and it reduces stress, resulting in fewer mistakes.
As for the 'roadway crews are always standing around' thing, I used to work residential construction when I was in college, and I can tell you that being the young guy on the job with the next youngest person in their 50's, I was the one doing the heavy lifting. When you just finished carrying enough bundles of roofing up a ladder to do the entire roof, you can bet that I took 15 minutes to catch my breath and regain my energy, and the one time a homeowner complained, my boss handed them a bundle of roofing and told them to carry it up the ladder. The homeowner never complained again.
I was paid to just stand around as part of my construction crew. Occasionally I would hold stuff or grab a box, but the whole point of 16 year old me being there was so the requirement of a three-man crew was fulfilled. I wasn't there to actually do anything because it was specialized work and the two other guys were the only ones who could really do it and they didn't want or need help but were required to have a third person. I got paid minimum wage to hover around and watch them lay the tile and occasionally grab something slightly out of someone's reach
People also underrate how frustrating it is to do that. They talk about it like it's easy. But in terms of stress and mental fatigue I think it's harder to be the squire than to be the person doing the real work, because the squire can never relax and is always being bossed about.
@@karkador As a flagger for road construction during the summer, it may look like I’m standing around doing nothing, holding a slow/stop sign, like it’s an easy job. But to anyone that says my job is easy, I dare them to wake up at 4am to catch a bus at 5am to have an hour long bus ride to get to an office at 6am, so that you can drive out of town to start work at 7am, then work 14 hours out in 30°C heat with the sun bearing down on you until 9pm, then get dropped off at home at 10pm, shower quick, have a bit to eat, try to wind down and get to sleep so that you can wake up at 4am the next day to do it all over again, and then do that for 6 days a week, all summer long, and THEN try to tell me it’s easy. It’s not.
As someone with a Bachelor's in Physics and then a Master's in electrical engineering, I can confirm that your teacher is spot on. Anytime I make something for personal use I just make it way stronger than needed because it is faster and easier than sitting there and trying to figure out the minimum specs needed. Do I have the ability to make something just strong enough? Yes, but then I'd need to sit here and look for the right equations and try to source parts that are just strong enough for the job. Vs just getting parts that are so much stronger that I don't need any calculations to say that they will hold up.
@@zebraloverbridget This is how my brain works. My dad is a welding engineer and he can tell me everything about types of metal and structure of things. But when I build stuff like gates or even simple things like bumpers or stiffeners for vehicles i always just over build it because finding out what’s right takes to much time or isn’t cost effective on a small scale.
Two thoughts about the "standing around doing nothing" bit. 1. Most sites have breaks at the same time every day, and most trades coordinate to break with each other. So if you're say, driving by the same worksite at the same time Monday through Friday, you might be driving by a job site on break every time. 2. One of my tasks that required "standing around" was Hole Watch at a refinery. I tracked every person that went in and out of an enclosed space and all I was ALLOWED to do was watch a gas meter. If something changed inside the unit, it was my responsibility to make sure everyone got out immediately. I couldn't be distracted by labor and potentially put lives at risk. That's going to be a similar story for a lot of safety people, whether they're hole watch, fire watch, or any other situation that creates extra risk.
Yes, when I did construction these guys were called "spotters" and sometimes there needed to be two of them. This would be for whenever the crane would be moving loads overhead, or there was a danger of things falling from above, and a road or an area of the worksite had to be blocked off and nobody allowed through, some jobs which were higher risk also required spotters.
@@bobroberts2371 I can happily report that union rules require one 15 minute break in the morning and a half an hour lunch in the afternoon, for regular 8 hour days anyway. Maybe your union is different. 😉
@@BadPenny3 In the 1980's I watched as unions decimated local companies by protecting non performers. strikes over nothing, work slowdowns , pulling security out of the guard shack at gun point then burning it down , destroying local landmarks , seeding streets around the plant with bent nails ( with local residents suffering the most ). I've had more than a couple of union workers brag how they would hide out for most of the day and then double shift to get something done. In the 2000's I worked for a non union company that hired union contractors for major equipment installs. The union mechanical workers would not remove 2 1/4-20 bolts holding an EMPTY electrical cable tray from a conveyor because " that is the electricians job " . We waited for another of their breaks and took the bolts out ourselves.. There are more instances where union = no progress but that should be enough for now.
I call this standing around "leaning on your shovel." I am in IT, not construction anymore, but I sometimes get called into meetings to "lean on my shovel" - being present to share information, give instructions when needed or just to observe.
I get called into meetings like that sometimes. Often, my only contribution is that I'm the only one present who felt the need to take notes. It looks like 'playing on my phone' because that's what I'm taking notes on. Quicker than writing and easier to read! Anyone who complains about said notes after realising they needed some can just deal with them being written in a way I'll understand, including jargon from industries I've previously worked in.
As a civil engineer who spent a few years working for a Geotech company, I've seen a lot of residential construction. For pipes and utilities, who comprises a lot of work out on the street, there were 5-6 man crews where at any given time it would look like guys were just standing around. It's just the nature of some construction. Many times they have to wait for the machine operator to finish digging a section before they can get back to assembling or placing something.
I found most cases of guys standing around was my(or a diff) dumb 70 year old stubborn Italian yapping about how he’s done it his way for 50 years, while also showing you everything NOT to do(unintentionally)
I was a town engineer shared between a dozen towns. I used to really investigate bids. The most common problem with low bidders was fraudulent bonds. It made it easy to disqualify questionable and bad contractors. When one protested I told him that we'll let the Attorney General decide if this was criminal fraud. I never saw nor heard from him again. The other problem was attempted substitution of materials. They tried to change my contract! You do a very good series of videos. Even though I've been retired for 11 years, I'm still interested in Civil Engineering. Happy Summer Solstice. Good Luck, Rick
Yeah, there have been many a project that didn't last as long as it should because of these under the table substitutions and ill-advised corner-cutting. Hell, most "engineering disasters" end up being the result of such acts. If I were told to select a contractor for something and couldn't vet them, I'd go with nothing cheaper than the 3rd cheapest option(or a higher cost one depending on my selection pool), because I know the cheapest options are pretty much *never* good enough.
I have no idea because I am no expert. But I always read in the newspaper about projects that require more money than planed. And in Germany it seems even if there was a mistake in the estimation we pay them more as long as they get the job done :/ The other thing I think is highly qustionable. A company that did a really bad job on project isn't disqualified for the next project. So one company did 2 jobs in my region that got both much more expensive than planned...as someone with no idea what I am taling about I always wonder, how can it be so hard to build a roundabout ?
Oh yeah, dunno how many times I've seen jobs ripped up and redone becasue of shonky contractors. How many times I'd made comment about substandard, insufficient or just plain obviously under specced and being told, 'nah, don't worry, we've done hundreds of these' then see the contractor back in a month to fix it. Incompetence and liars. One of my favorites, laborers who say, you've got me from the neck down and in the next breath ask how can they get on here. They look at you as though you're a prick when you walk off shaking your head.
As someone who studies archaeology, I can also add that a large number of ancient buildings we see are reconstructed. Many of them were found in pieces and put back together by archaeologists. Even the ones which have remain intact have had to be reinforced over the ages, just like modern infrastructure.
@@maksrambe3812 Indeed, but not without regular reinforcement by people who continued to care about it. It's also one of the more exceptional pieces. For every parthenon there are hundreds of ruined monuments.
definitely! and look how many ancient structures were sourced from other even more ancient ruins. this happened a lot in, for example, ancient Egypt. there are tons of pharaohs and even entire dynasties we know nothing about because later civilizations and rulers sourced their own construction projects from those old civilizations.
And the reason why so many different cultures built pyramids and why they are still standing is, because making a giant pile is the best and most stable way to build tall structures with stone.
As a road laborer for 6 years “hurry up and wait” was one of the most common statements in my life, and also waiting for materials (hot asphalt for me) often delays everything!
Too true. My company does road safety barriers and most of our down time on site is spent waiting for trucks because the office couldn’t make sure we had enough to finish the job.
What really pisses me off when working roadside with traffic management is the amount of drivers that do NOT slow down to the posted speed, also the many drivers that speed up, Morons.
Timing is hard to judge for complex tasks. Even given that labor is the most expensive component, keeping one person (or a team of people) waiting, is often cheaper than holding up the entire worksite to wait for them.
@@MrARock001 ya that’s true. Our job is weird though because usually we’re the only ones on site, or other companies are waiting for us to finish before they can start, so it’s always better for us to finish as fast as possible.
I was an industrial electrician for 30 years. Once in a while I had to step through a door away from the hot dirty and kinda dark factory floor and work on electrical problems in bright air conditioned offices with their comfy (literally) $1000 chairs. While those office workers were hanging around the water cooler or or likely looking at their stocks online, they were often talking about the lazy line workers on the other side of the wall. The vast majority of people that work on the line have every second of the day mapped out for them, time study makes sure they are never idle. They can't even go to the bathroom when they need to without first getting permission and someone to take their place on the line. The same office worker that could take a break anytime they needed to harped about how the line worker got too much break time. I worked in an office for a while, a whole lot of time was taken up with what was called networking and on Friday people disappeared early to beat the traffic. Call it what you want, if those guys on the line had time to do it, it would be called something a lot more negative. I am sometimes surprised any work gets done in an office.
Absolutely agree. When someone at a worksite or in a workshop isn't working, it is very obvious, because they are idle. When someone in an office isn't working, it's not that obvious. They sit at their desk, by their computer. Reading, flipping through papers. It looks the same wether they are productive or not. Some manual workers are genuinely lazy, just like some office workers are. It's just a fact, but most aren't. In fact, the more you lazy about, the slower the day will pass. At a worksite, sometimes you need to stop for a while and consult your colleagues to solve a problem. Communication between different subcontractors is extremely important and it is always time well spent. I've been to jobsites with a hundred guys from eight different contract firms, all working their asses off but no-one is coordinating the work and no-one is communicating. It is absolute chaos, and extremely ineffective.
I used to work for overhead network construction in the then state owned telecoms company. A farmer once complained to the office that he had been watching a two man crew sitting in their van drinking tea for a full 45 minutes. Having ranted about laziness, lack of supervision, how easy we all had it and that we should all be sacked because we were useless, he was asked what time it happened. Turns out the crew were on their lunch hour.
Dude I work in hospitality and someone complained about me having a smoke on my break with 2 others that just finished work, this is the sole reason I never judge too quickly on anything!
@@chingymofo1 as a healthcare worker, I've been explicitly told by patients and their families that since I'm in public service, how dare I take breaks for lunch or even get a (weekend) day off. Load of bull.
@@bossaudio12 depends on the job. I had one for a while where the requirement was 30 mins per 4 hours, and since we ran 9 hour shifts the preference was to do 4 hrs, take a full hour break, then work the other 4 hours. Current job is max 2 hrs worked at a time, 15 mins required between 2 hour periods, a full 30 min break required per 6 hours (in addition to others), but we give 30-60 minute breaks when we can, and sometimes go 30-30 or 60-60 rotations.
A friend repairs construction equipment. While usually he is called out when stuff is already broken, on tight schedules like closing an important road over night he is called on stand by. Paid to do nothing just in case.
And money well spent. I have often arranged for people or equipment to be on standby because the time lost waiting for them to be called in would be huge or just couldn't be tolerated in the schedule no matter what it cost.
Major closures may also involve early completion incentives. I've been involved in projects that had $10000 per day early completion incentives for a scheduled 1 week road closure. I think one of them reopened the road 4 days early. So yeah, having a few extra people around can make a difference. Also want to avoid the $10000 per day penalty for not meeting schedule.
I worked physical labor for a long time and sometimes people are just standing around. They're not all inspectors, quality control, or jobsite supervisors. It's not a myth and it doesn't need to be explained or excused. People don't work all day nonstop in an office either. There are often other things to do but not everyone is going to be motivated to work nonstop. We aren't machines.
@@lopezlopez7132 no. The excuse is that physical labour is hard and people need breaks. We don't have unlimited energy, sometimes digging can only be done by 1 person at a time so we take turns doing the work. More than 1 person digging the same utility out of the ground can cause problems and be dangerous in some cases. As construction labourers, we all put in our effort and time into getting projects done. Just because we sometimes stand around doesn't mean we aren't working.
@@lopezlopez7132 also sometimes you need to wait for materials to be delivered, trucks can only go as fast as the speed limits and different things get in the way, such as traffic, specific truck routes that need to be taken, and weather. Materials don't just magically appear, they need to be delivered, and if there's no space for materials to be delivered beforehand like in the case of gravel, there's not always space for large piles of gravel to sit and wait, the materials need to be delivered as we need them.
@@ewanwiebe And you don't see any contradiction in your statement "Just because we sometimes stand around doesn't mean we aren't working"? You're standing around and it means you're working?
@@ewanwiebe I used to own a business. If my employees had to wait for "materials to be delivered," or something like that, they were given other tasks to do. I understand to "stand around" for 5 minutes waiting for materials or something like that, but 4 guys standing around for half a day because of traffic somewhere or no space to put gravel is a waste of time and money.
There should be an asterisk on the lowest bidder section: it depends on WHY they are the lowest bidder. A lot depends on the contractors understanding of the specs and drawings. And I've seen more than a few contractors low ball a bid just to win the job, and then try and make up for everything they didn't include with change orders.
I've seen that with the sewer authority, I'm the chairman of. The initial construction and the redesign both ended up in court. I still have a picture of a yacht, called change order with the dingy behind it called original contract. Then I have seen profit margins go from 10% on a change order to 15% over the last decade.
"With an unlimited budget my 2 year old could design a bridge that carries monster trucks over the English channel for a million years" - Outstanding! I struggle explaining why all solutions work, but aren't equal. Thank's for a great new example!
Actually, if I take that quote literally, I do wonder how a bridge that would ACTUALLY last a million years would look. Can it even be made with concrete?
@@durendenmp812 You might want to read "The Clock Of The Long Now: Time and Responsibility", about trying to design and build a clock to last 10,000 years. There are a lot of unique technical challenges, including that no material is tested and rated to last anywhere near that long. One of the solutions is to use brittle materials that either work or spectacularly fail -- if they fail under load, it will be right away.
@@durendenmp812 It'd probably have to be an ongoing mega-project with constant maintenance from generations of people who live around the structure... which just shows the engineering absurdity of trying to build something to last so long. Especially since within 5,000 years someone will almost certainly render it useless by making some sort of radical new transportation system. Why even bother with bridges when orbital transporters or person-size flying machines are as trivial as bicycles are now?
As a kid we had a lesson on bridge engineering on a school field trip, as a joke I said to the engineer “let’s be real, the way it actually works is the bridge is just huge, so it can support the weight of the cars”. He looked mad and pointed at one of the load-bearing beams on the bridge that was vibrating slightly due to the weight of the cars.
As someone who worked as an electrical inspector, I have found the "non-working" foremans to be some of the best. Yes they aren't pulling wire and making spices but they make the job run so much smoother by having better schedules, identifying the materials needed, submitting RFIs before they get to the work, keeping his guys working, etc.
I have seen both sides of non working foremen. However, in my trade ( electrician) the split was about even, and in the last company I worked for, our non working foremen had the worst jobsites. The best foreman I worked with (see the difference here?) knew how to balance his just supervising with his actually pitcing in. His jobs ALWAYS ran smoother and within both time and materials budget. And his crews were the most productive AND happiest.
I'm a State inspector. I totally understand how it looks like I'm just standing around or sitting in my truck. I think you did a great job describing our work. We are quality assurance for the state. Paying a worker a small salary to insure the state doesn't have to pay millions of dollars to Re-do something messed up. Pays for itself rather quickly. thanks for all the videos!
The inspector doesn't look like a worker though. Those people aren't held to the same standard of "why aren't you working" because you aren't expected to have a shovel in your hand.
About survival bias and ancient concrete: Just take a look at those city gates that had traffic running through them when cars became numerous. Black, corroded, and in many cases they collapsed (or had to be torn down because they degraded too much). Or what happened to bridges as car traffic increased, those old bridges often have very low speeds and low vehicle masses allowed, because they can't take the stress.
Well the Colosseum didn't have to forcefully fit many times the people than it was designed for and it was only used during events, so of course it survived and those pillars shown carry nothing on top of them so...
There is something to be said though for roman concrete, specifically the aquatic concrete they used in their sea ports. I forget the full chemistry but where normal concrete degrades in salt water through chemical reactions with salt the concrete the Romans used had volcanic ash that when exposed to sea water reduced some of it into aluminum oxide basically making a passivation layer on the concrete and drastically reducing corrosion. That doesn't make it stronger but it is how it survived until now. The same technique can certainly be applied to modern concrete allowing a more chemically stable structure than not. As someone who lives in NY where salt is regularly applied to the roads this would be exceedingly beneficial.
? what are your on abou,t if you keep the the really big suspension bridges out on the grounds they didnt have the materials needed, the same reason, we don't have space elevator's at the moment neally all stone bridges, more so the arched ones, will almost anything with on limit, the same can'nt be said the the new steal or concrete one, the do have great strength, but a well made stone Bridge, will beat any new bridges of the same size, in all ways, the big ones not Max weight, and almost on maintenance, needed , and the ones needing maintenance, is mainly because there old some times very old, as to more moden bridges, needing routine maintenance checked every year or so, when was the last time a stone bridge fell down, stone bridges have a lot in common with tunnels, more so the old ones,
Many, many years ago during a very cold spell of weather, I was the 'safety guy' for two colleagues pressure washing the inside of military fuel bunkers. They were boiling hot, but for me it was the closest I have come to hypothermia, literally just standing still and keeping an eye on them. I had to force myself to start doing short sprints above ground to keep myself warm, and alive. In the years since, I have become cynical, thank you Grady for this video, it's seriously reminded me that people are just trying to do their job and the complexities and logistics of building, improving and repairing infrastructure is not as black and white to the outside viewer. I do enjoy your insights, but this one sticks out that little bit more. My thanks to the workers shedding blood, sweat and tears so we can live and exist in our modern world.
This tale reminds me of the guys that have to clean the interior of aircraft wing fuel tanks. Man does my heart go out to them. Mike Rowe would be proud.
When it was -38c on the pipeline, a common trick we used was to wrap our hands around the exhaust pipe of the heavy equipment that was just idling. It saved my fingers from falling off, many, MANY times.
@@phileeepaye1641 The fuel bunkers were dome shaped, I'd trot down then back up, took all of 30 seconds, and to be fair, I hadn't been trained on what to do if something went wrong anyway! It was the lowest paid job I've ever had.
Oh grady! I'm a superintendent and just took off two weeks stress leave because of clients/architects/engineers constantly complaining about theses very issues. Thanks for grounding me and explaining it's not just my misgivings and lack of caring that cause problems.
All the best mate, gets to all of us sometimes! Keep well and keep your head up. Sometimes it is just time for a change and other times it's time to get through it - just listen to yourself
I live in Magdeburg, Germany, just 3 minutes from a large new bridge & road construction site (the Ersatzneubau Strombrückenzug) and seeing the slow progress every day has been really fascinating. It seems like sometimes nothing will happen for weeks and then, over night, a huge new part of the bride will be suddenly be completed. It really put the amount of invisible work in perspective for me. You need to have a lot of other things done before you can just plop a new 50 000kg(!) piece of steel on the end of your bridge without it collapsing.
Comicly, to some English speaking people it will look like you are specifying 50 kg to 5 significant figures not 50 tonnes. ("." is used as the decimal marker not a seperator for triplets. Some people still use "," as a seperator but best practice in sensible English speaking countries for decades has been to seperate triplets by spaces, probably to avoid confusion with countries that use "," as the decimal marker.)
@@igrim4777 most of us understand that the decimal has the same use as a comma. Born and raised in America and I understand the metric system way better than I do the imperial system.
Your right. I work in a factory that is currently expanding a building and when you watch the construction crew it looks like nothing is happening, but then you look at the timelapse of the past few days and you see how much actually got done.
Working outside of course makes everything even harder. If concrete is involved, you have to plan possibly weeks in advance for when you will need the concrete on-site because it has to be made remotely and brought in on trucks. It also can't sit around in the trucks or it will start to cure. They can't pour the concrete if there is any chance of rain and the only way to know that is to have a solid window of time to make it all happen. They can also be offsite making the steel frames or working at a different site. The bridge site could be waiting on some material that has a long lead time. There are also unforeseen questions that pop up on nearly every construction site and the engineers have to be consulted to answer the new questions and possibly draw up and engineer new plans to answer those questions.
As someone with a background in both construction (residential and commercial plumbing) and IT, I always appreciate the balanced view and information you bring to your subject matter.
@@OldSchool9690 We have been using tech both on jobs it's and in the office for decades. We had digitizers and scanners in the late 80's. Many of us went back and forth between which tool I used. The best of us can draw faster by hand then the best cad operator. But digital is quicker to make changes or jump up in elevation or over to another typical structure. But if I may, there is no transition. Digital is just another tool in my box. The building is the finished product. Not the drawings.
@@OldSchool9690 I actually started in IT. I went to construction after Dell stopped hiring in the US, outsourced everything, then finally sold the portion of their company that I worked for without telling anybody until after the deal was done. I decided to get something that couldn't be outsourced like that, and got in to plumbing. Did new construction, first residential, then spent some time in commercial. I'm back in IT now and yes, it can be immensely boring at times, lol. But it's a mixed bag, and some areas are busy all the time, just like building a house.
I've got a about 3 years of experience across various construction trades The only time Ive ever actually had any time to stand around and do nothing was when my supervisor told me to "wait here for the forklift with the windows to bring the materials over" and then fell asleep on a pallet of cement bags while waiting for the fork lift. Woke up 2 hours later and no fork lift had arrived
I worked landscaping for 6 years, and there’s a lot of “standing around,” where you’re spotting for machines, working on layout, and catching your breath
I worked a few summers at construction sites, and the truth is that there is a lot of inefficiency that arises just from the workers doing their best to figure out what to do. Usually the architect's plans have some minor flaws that cause major delays and idle time for the construction crew, and the on-site engineers often have to make decisions based on incomplete information and without a lot of experience in all the various jobs that need to be done. Despite having an image of purely physical labor, a surprisingly large portion of time and effort goes to just thinking.
@J D To be clear, it is not a criticism of anyone, just an observation of the construction process. It's the reason why construction has not been automated yet: building is a difficult problem. If you think what I say is incorrect, you should address it on a factual basis, rather than try to belittle me as a person.
In a profession where you are not allowed to make changes or modify anything without the approval of an engineer causes a job of the simplest nature to come to a standstill.
You have a fair take, though an incomplete one. Sometimes those 'errors' on the prints aren't an error at all, and contractors waste time by trying to sell the owner and his field engineering reps on a 'better' solution that may save the contractor time or effort, but has long-term ramifications on maintainability or operation that were taken into consideration by the original designer. Or there's a note or alternate installation detail that requires actually reading the entire package, not just glancing at the one plan view. Some may even anticipate billing on the back end by bringing up additional costs due to change-orders that they actually initiated 'to save time', or be using this apparent confusion over the prints to cover for the fact that they have a delay because they've overcommitted their labour force elsewhere, or messed up and didn't order enough material or tools. There's quite a bit of back and forth behind the scenes going on, especially with megaprojects, that don't neccessarily trickle all the way down to guys working in the field at a summer position, and the guys that did the prints are often not in the room as they're being thrown under the bus.
@@russellkeeling4387 Long line of major building and industrial accidents to demonstrate what happens when you *don't* go back to the engineer before making changes, even seemingly inconsequential material substitutions or other changes. Best when both sides are working together from the start and throughout, but oftentimes the owner's pinching pennies trying to compartmentalize. Penny-wise, pound-foolish.
I feel like with the Roman roads argument it's also important to recognize what they are designed for and capable of. Modern roads may have potholes, but those cobblestone roads basically ARE potholes. They are fine for horses and carts and such, but try to take your Audi on one at 70 mph and you'll have a very bad day.
Yeah plus its hard to stress just how much wear and tear roads get. A loaded semi truck weights hundreds of times as much as a horse drawn cart and it goes 10x the speed. I've seen roads that have noticeable ruts worn in them within 10-20 years which can take centuries to show up on a cobblestone road.
@@arthas640 The places that do still have cobbled roads have to maintain them fairly regularly, it's rare that the stones get worn down but most often they'll just fall out or get loose. Cobbled roads also rarely stay very flat or straight even if they're built that way because the stones can all individually move and they will creating a fairly uneven road over time. Lots of places just opt to seal the stones in with asphalt for that reason because it helps protect them against erosion and water damage. My city has a downtown area that's cobbled and it works because it's pretty much exclusive to bikes and pedestrians but they definitely do have to maintain it roughly as often as the normal roads.
@@hedgehog3180 The Roman cobblestone roads are a lot more solid than most other examples in various civilizations, but even they will succumb to this... Though, they could theoretically have just put concrete over them and been relatively fine. That said, not sure how well the methods would translate over to say, someplace with a lot of clay in the soil, like Mississippi, or some place of greater cold, like Montana
yeah not only that, let 80000 pound 18 wheelers travel on that cobble stone 24 hours a day through a canadian winter and you will have nothing left but pebbles haha. Anyone comparing cobblestone roads to our modern highways must be 44high on something haha.
I sometimes work as a biological monitor on construction sites, though I would probably mistaken as a typical crew member "standing around." There are similar monitors for archaeology and such (when required). We certainly aren't trained for any construction work, but we're there to check areas beforehard and make sure the operators don't make any costly legal mistakes.
9:50 few people realize just how stressful the job of an estimator is since if we screw up and under bid work then the company will lose money and may have to downsize, but if we guess too high it means we lose jobs, waste the time it took to bid the job (which can be days or weeks of time) and we start to run out of work which can mean downsizing as well. Your boss may walk in and say work slowed too much and now they're firing workers because you didnt do your job well enough or you may get fired too. At the same time its a very detail orientated and complicated job, I worked on a rather small to medium sized project once that had a book of specs we had to follow that was over 1000 pages and there was a single half of a sentence that said "electrical trenches will have a 3 inch bedding of pea gravel" and that wasnt mentioned in the electrical section or the plans so it was super easy to miss but increased the electrical portion of the project by over 25% which when you only have a 5% profit margin and everyone you're competing against will have their bids all come in at the same 5-10% range is a big deal. Extra stressful since suppliers and sub contractors on government projects all send in their bids just before the dead line and if you dont get your bid turned in at or before the deadline (even down to the minute) you can get disqualified so a delayed email may end up causing tons of work to be for nothing, I once had a job i spent around 3-4 days working on get disqualified because my Microsoft Outlook froze. You're constantly under the gun to get things done quickly, efficiently, and with little to no margin for error. There arent many jobs quite like it since your job and your coworkers jobs depend on your ability to do things as close to perfect as possible and depending on the size of your company you might be entirely on your own with little oversight and little help. To make things worse if a project comes in over budget or takes longer than anticipated its pretty common for guys in the field to blame the estimator for under bidding the project even if it's due to the people in the field taking too long or working too slow, and even "acts of God" types of unforeseeable problems can end up getting blamed on you. I've had a few different positions in the construction industry: secretary, apprentice, journeyman, project manager, administrator, delivery driver/supply yard worker, and laborer, but estimating was the most stressful by far.
I'm sorry but deadlines don't mean "submit it exactly at this time." If you lost a job because Outlook froze, that's poor planning on your part. That's a ridiculous excuse for waiting until the last minute to do something. I get that things take time and everyone is working hard but if something as simple as a computer program freezing is preventing you from getting a job, that would make me seriously question everything that went into planning that job. Also, Outlook Web Access is a thing.
Nothing quite like waiting on material quotes to come in while you are trying to meet a deadline for submitting the estimate, not getting them in time and having to try and figure the cost of some custom skylight or something based of previous quotes so that you can include it in your bid. I enjoy estimating but its a lot of pressure to be the one guy keeping working flowing in.
I've spent a lot of time playing on my phone in the truck because the contractor would rather have a full time crew on site than deal with the scheduling hassle of just having the surveyor come out when they need him.
As a financial analyst for high rise office buildings, I can tell you that there’s no room for laziness in my field. It either works or it doesn’t, nothing in between.
After serving in the US Army in an engineering battalion as a driver, I never had to wonder why it looked like construction crews were just standing around. I spent more than enough time to know that sometimes I am going to have to wait a crew or piece of equipment to finish before I can continue or start my job with the equipment I am operating.
Having worked in the Arctic, I have seen how important alternatives to bedrock foundations are. Different styles of floating foundations helped to prevent heat from the building to be transmitted into the permafrost below allowing the building above to remain stable. I have seen buildings that were not constructed with such care and they had a bad habit of settling into the ground as the soil beneath them melted.
Cicero actually wrote about one of his apartment buildings developing worrying cracks. Juvenal describes being struck in the head by roof tiles. Apartment buildings in Rome could reach four stories, and collapse was a far more regular occurrence than for modern buildings.
Just look at the stories of structure collapse from even the most minor earthquakes at the time compared to how modern, well-engineered structures handle a pretty decent quake, plus how much smaller most of those structures were while having a higher failure rate. Ancient Rome was certainly at the forefront of their times in terms of engineering, but nowhere near where we are now.
@@Stormynormy42 buildings still collapse like that, in places without enforced building codes. This week in Afghanistan, for example, an earthquake knocked down many buildings. I’m sure American buildings would be falling over all the time, if we citizens didn’t demand that the government establish and enforce building codes.
@@gerardlabelle9626 I didn't say they didn't. My point was that with modern technology, techniques, materials, equipment, etc., we have the ability to build large structures that can take pretty strong quakes, including ones that would have taken out most structures of the time. I didn't say every structure currently on earth is built to these standards.
As an example of this from software development, my employer observed that most things went well during the pandemic with everyone working from home, except one thing: inventions. Those casual conversations in the hallway or at the water cooler were a large part of where the real innovation was taking place. Sure, we might spend 38 hours a week at the computer, but the other 2 hours of chatting is where a lot of the creativity came from.
Makes a lot of sense. My employers want us to not be 100% at home because company cohesion is falling apart ever since the home office started. Not completely, but enough to be noticeable. Us chatting and us overhearing other people talking about their problems at their job is something which is lacking if people are in home office. Also if someone is in a skype/teams meeting to talk about something with their coworker then they are 100% occupied. If they are at the office then you can just go to them and interrupt for a second if necessary. Being focused on your job alone might seem better and more efficient but it isn't in the long run. Unless the job doesn't require team work and innovation.
True, but also over-stated, it's not that all innovation only happens there and not at all at home. Having people that are happy where they are (be it in the office or at home) ends up with the best workforce.
@@philippbrogli779 My husband's former employer would pay you if your brilliant idea came up while you were in the shower, or other private time places. Lots of creative ideas come from there. Also, I wanted to get paid for being the "cardboard programmer" when my husband really got stuck and had to tell me everything he was doing. It would always unstick him, but I never got any credit. LOL
@@cellgrrl A forward thinking employer there, cellgrrl. I worked at a place for 26 years where they ran a scheme whereby any idea taken up was rewarded with 10% of the savings for the first year. Even some that were not taken up were rewarded with a one off payment if management thought they were good.
As an electrician, I'm really glad to see this video. I have experience working on big and small construction sites over two decades. I've also worked in an office and around offices. In my experience, much more productivity gets done on a job site than any office I've ever been in and around. Nobody is standing around unless something has gone wrong, we are having a safety meeting, or it's break/lunch time. On the other hand, sitting at a desk, sending emails and grabbing coffee can be your job, but do you work all of those 8 hours? No stopping to watch TH-cam for a while? Looking at your phone? Killing time while you wait for an answer from your boss? I'd say more actual hours of productivity happen in a big construction site per day than most offices.
No U-toob, but phones have become a useful tool. From calculation apps to texting a detail of the prints. I let the crew know what is, and what isn’t acceptable. Some know it will be a distraction, so they just leave it in their car.
I did 30+ downlights in three yesterday. My neck and arms needed a rest. My thumb is the worst. I can’t keep that pace up all day on one task. I’ve also worked in offices and the mental tiredness is also an issue. Funny enough, working on a spreadsheet hurt my neck too but the time flew compared to downlights. I prefer spreadsheets to downlights.
What kind of "office" were you at? It must have been some kind of union design firm. You clearly have no idea what it's like to work as an architect or engineer at any of the companies I've worked for. If you flake off or screw around at your desk it doesn't take long to catch up with you and get you canned. We also get to put in countless hours of unpaid overtime when the inevitable random deadline convergence occurs. How much free overtime do you put in?
Not all labor is physical. Per hour, it may feel like more is happening on the site because it's the easiest progress to observe, but remember, every single project you've ever done was first drafted by someone in an office. Your work is made possible because there is someone sitting at a desk and sending emails. Also, if workers in the field are allowed to stand around and grab a drink to take a break from the physical labor, then office workers are allowed to grab a coffee and walk around to take a break from the mental labor. :)
There’s a reason our state workers seem to “stand around” too. A friend of mine that works for Dept of Transportation said they get assignments for each job daily. And they’re not allowed to get done fast and start on tomorrow’s job. So, if they have 5 hours of road repair and 8 hours to do it, they’re gonna take an extra break or 2 (or 3). Whatever their next job is for tomorrow (more road repair, mowing, guardrail replacement) will have to wait until tomorrow.
As a bridge inspector I appreciate this video! I will say it does feel odd standing around watching other people work but inspectors play a vital role in ensuring the final product is built to standards and isn't a hazard to the public. I'm also glad you addressed the myth about Roman concrete and structures, an ancient Romans head would spin if they saw a concrete beam with pre-stressed strands, quite ordinary in today's construction of bridges!
@@tylerjacobson5840 everything in general through the construction of a bridge. Earthworks, deep foundations, formwork for concrete structures, concrete itself, reinforcing steel, beams, post-tensioning strands, conduit ect...
@@evilsimeon And that's perfectly fine. Unless you'd *prefer* to live in a Roman marble structure without modern heating, plumbing, or air conditioning?
As an engineer, I can tell you we always try to cover our bases when it comes to contractor's cutting corners. First, is with the specs. If you are lead or CA engineer on a project, you have to know the specs backwards, forwards, and inside-out before you go inspect a site. Then it becomes obvious if the contractor has decided to ignore reading the specs. And once you spot that first item that doesn't match the specs, it's a red flag to begin looking at everything that much closer. Next is with submittal review. Division 01 specs always include a section on submittals. Every trade is supposed to submit every product used in construction and sometimes shop drawings to sow the intended installation. If you go through your list of submittals and you see some products missing that you know are part of the project, it's pretty obvious they haven't fulfilled the requirement and you should note that on a site visit report if you see that product anywhere on site. And if someone is brining discrepancies up in a meeting, especially in front of an owner, don't let the contractor BS their way out of it. As the engineer, we are the experts on what we design. So, if a supervisor starts in "well, we've done it this way on lots of projects and never had an issue" respond with, "but this is how you were required to do it on this project. It doesn't matter if it worked elsewhere, what matters is you agreed to do it according to these drawings and these specifications."
Thanks Grady! That's an excellent overview of an industry that all of us see from the outside, but a relatively small percentage know the inside story. I must say that since I've been subscribed to your channel, I look at things from bridges to roads to cranes to power lines with much greater interest now! I pre-ordered your forthcoming book on Amazon, and can't wait for it to arrive! Thanks!
I'm on the ground 80% of the time as a grade checker/setter but that other 20% I'm in machines and after operating anything from a vibratory roller to an excavator for 8-10 hours a day is strenuous! Thank you Grady for this video. You do a lot to give respect to all aspects of the job, from laborers to engineers and it's awesome!
As an estimator for power & utility company, in my experience being awarded a project which was bid is a great feeling for a fraction of a second followed by panic wondering what I missed lol
Have to imaging the worse one is seeing you missed being lowest bid on nearly a 7 figure job by a couple thousand dollars. Seen that one happen as the engineer a few times. Same where someone lost a bid due to a mistake in bid schedule (thinking it was lump sum instead of each for a line item which gets corrected to double the value of that line, and the bid is lost due to this error)
@@e_eyster I have also seen LS bids mistaken for unit pricing and vice versa. I too have participated in very close 7 figure bids like you mentioned, where $3,000 or essentially peanuts separate low bid & #2, it’s a very different feeling when #2 is nowhere near, or even double #1 which is more the norm and sends everyone “back to the drawing board” lol It’s a tough job but can be very rewarding and/or satisfying work!
@@shawna.4601 Yeah its odd watching the winning bid for large area of disturbance come down to someone pricing silt fencing at $0.10/LF less. As an engineer the big fears are when you get a lot of bids and either "win" the bid with your estimate, or everyone comes in 20% under your estimate because it means something was wrong somewhere.
You hit the nail on the head when you said there's a lot of "hurry up and wait" in construction lol. Ya your an engineer but unlike some you seem to have a pretty good understanding of the production side of the business! In the view of a subcontractor, the bad engineers are the ones who don't have a reasonable understanding of what hoops the laborers have to jump through to meet whatever specifications they establish. Keep up the great work!
As a roadway and bridge construction inspector, I found this video to be a great explanation to the layman, of what happens with a construction project. This is a great general overview, and will be what I point those interested to, when asked about what I do at work. I never have felt that I could quite adequately explain the complexity of all that is happening simultaneously, that requires monitoring. Great work on this
Lol, my father was a master carpenter and a commercial contractor. Have been around countless construction projects, beginning with the BP building in Cleveland Oh back in the 80’s. Regardless if one thing is true about most construction projects is that most if not all projects could be completed for about half their actual cost. As a majority of the costs are due to lack of planning by those directing the projects.
i agree,,,,your govt dollars are wasteful maximus...the bigger the govt,the worse..local little towns are more likely to get work done closer to the price of what I would pay as a consumer..Federal projects retorn value to the taxpayer at 18% !!!! This is one reason small govt is better,In the meantime,regulations that have a one-size-fits -all solution to a problem is almost always wasteful....
Once I learned about the concept of "inherent vice" from an acquaintance who worked as a conservator in an art museum, the concept of planned obsolecence made sense. Knowing the safe lifespan of a material lets you plan for when you need to replace it.
Knowing that isn't always valuable, though. Unlike in long-term large scale projects such as infrastructure om which people rely pretty much 24/7, personal electronic devices or household utilities aren't used on a schedule so tight that you couldn't just replace them whenever that becomes necessary.
@@xCorvus7x While true, I think it is safe to know /when/ a structure might start failing. Not necessarily planning the time of failure. Having knowledge of "Until when should have this structure open to the public before we renovate or replace it?", as well as regular inspections are important for public safety.
@@NoThrottle Yeah, but that's not planned obsolescence anymore; rather an application of studying the security and durability of products which companies (to my knowledge at least) haven't even thought of. It'd be nice if they did share this knowledge of theirs with the public but they don't seem to care.
Worked as an electrician's helper for a fiberglass plant rebuild for PPG. 12 hour days, 6&7 days per week. Complicated coordination between the trades had me standing around a lot. I hated standing around!
Absolutely true. Just because you see workers standing around does not mean they are happy about it. I bet if you asked them, they'd be PO'd that they must wait on someone else so they can complete their work. Specialization into trades causes some of that, it can't be helped to an extent.
Great video - the first myth you dealt with was particularly eye-opening and reminded me of a an old study (that has eluded me finding it again) that concluded that at best, humans work at 70% efficiency and if try for more than that on a sustained basis you get burnout.
I prefer to think of it that "humans are capable of boosting to 140% of their steady state capacity for short times, but will require additional cool down and maintenance as a result."
Ive been watching your channel for a long time now and just wanted to take the opportunity to say how great your writing and delivery are, on top of the excellent editing. Tons of information, delivered in a way any layman can understand but not pandering, while being entertaining at the same time.
I have been a civil engineer for 40 years, both state and private. One time we were chip sealing a road shoulder and the asphalt delivery truck was very late. We had 20+ dump trucks, a distributor, and a child spreader sitting on the side of a very busy 4 lane highway (70 + mph). I can imagine what the drivers thought. It happened 30+ years ago. Another thought, it should be lowest qualified bidder. Most agencies pre-qualify contractors and they can only bid on project types that they are qualified for. Great site, enjoy watching you explain processes I have experience in. I also brought your book and I'm looking forward to reading it
I'm a materials inspector for an engineering company I do a lot of density tests for foundations on houses as well as commercial buildings and I'm so glad you hit on the bedrock myth most buildings out here are built on unsuitable building material so they have deep excavations filled with imported materials so they don't settle or sink
The lowest bid model makes an incentive for bidding contractors to rearrange their budgets away from 'non-essential' work. Unfortunately the first thing to get cut is lab testing! Because construction projects are sequential, a failing test (eg. soil compaction) halts work for everyone on site. Now there is pressure on the testing lab to 'pass' unsuitable material. The outcome: a road designed to last 20+ years starts falling apart within 2-3 years!
Not sure where this happens. Been managing state highway projects since the 90s. All records are open to the public. So put in an OPRA request if you want to see the real results.
You don’t just cut testing out of a budget if it is required in the contract. For public roads the agency requires certain testing in the contract. The contractor does the quality control and the agency does the quality assurance to verify the contractors results. If the results do not match up, a 3rd party does a test.
This is why testing and acceptance is performed by the project owner (usually the state or the city) rather than by the contractor building the project.
I often see labourers standing around at construction sites, and have been in similar situations where you can't do much of anyting until something else has been completed. Then of course for some thing it's having someone come by and look to see if what you did was done correctly. A lot less expensive to "waste" an hour of time then to have to redo 6 hours of work.
Plus you have inspectors who’s job it is to stand there and watch the workers to make sure everything is being done correctly. Usually the foreman of the crew is doing the same on their end
Most state projects are paid by completed item. So one worker or 100 workers is indifferent to how the contractor is paid by the owner. Same for work in your house. You pay for a new roof; does it matter if there are 5 or 50 folks installing it?
@@oscarwinner2034 that’s correct. Plus most state projects are won by lowest bid. So in the end it’s the contractors money being spent if they aren’t performing the work efficiently. You might think the foreman is just watching his laborers but actually he’s coordinating everything between his laborers and the inspector as well as directing his laborers to make sure they’re doing things correctly. As well as making sure the equipment is running smoothly and any issues are coordinated and taken care of. Inspectors usually have 1 or 2 people on site depending on how intensive the item work is. Basically, people just stereotype government workers as being slow and lazy when in actuality they don’t understand the regulations and what it takes to get the work done
@@xephael3485 more expensive for the contractor. But the owner only pays the contractor the as bid price for the completed item; not the labor costs and all.
In my experience in construction, alot of the time standing around is caused by another trade needing to do something in the same area, and when another trade gets in the way of them meeting their deadline they get mad, so if you see some workers faffing about outside, i'd reckon theres a 30% chance they're just as annoyed as you.
Just remembering that time at the annual extended family picnic here in Australia talking about the nearby weir and my cousin and I are clearly nerding out on hydraulic engineering and realise that we both binge your videos all the time haha. Loved this one, can't wait to see this series continue if possible
The thing I always heard was that "anyone can build a bridge that doesn't fall down, but it takes an engineer to build a bridge that just barely doesn't fall down"
@@nathanflett6427 Not in this case. If the bridge can do what you need, for as long as you need, at a cost of $100M, then it’s a waste to spend $150M to do the exact same job. Engineers are supposed to design/build to a specification with a reasonable margin of error (say, 5-10% or less).
I hate this quote. It might be appropriate to spaceship design where every gram matters, but things designed to "just barely stand up" don't stand up to abuse or neglect when left out in the elements for 100 years. What engineers *_can_* do is build a stronger bridge using the same amount of material... because they understand what each piece actually does instead of just throwing stuff together haphazardly.
🧠Get ahead in your career or studies with Brilliant: brilliant.org/PracticalEngineering 📖Did you know I wrote a book?! It comes out in November. You can preorder now for early access and other cool stuff: practical.engineering/book
But why do I see tons of contruction(not only around these parts but engineering documentaries, videos etc..) put already RUSTY rebar into a new concrete structures shortening the life of it...
speaking of steel rebar, I've seen new brands of rebar made of reinforced fiberglass. I'd like to know your thoughts on the pros and cons of these new types of rebar and possibly if they have a chance to replace steel
Yet another excellently put together production, with a nuance list.👌🏽👍🏼 This is necessary that instead of stigmatising something... we first at-least attempt to grasp the ethos, reasoning behind it (the choices, compulsions, restrictions, flexibility.. or its lack thereof). . Thanks again Grady ji🤍💙 wikipedia.org/wiki/-ji
@@agatasoda Rusty rebar doesn't shorten its life. Without oxygen the rust doesn't proceed. If exposed to oxygen (and it always is) a little head start makes no difference. And efforts to coat it (e.g. epoxy or plastic) make the situation worse. And these days, real concrete construction depends on "prestress"...attempting to always have it in compression...its only state of strength.
My brother worked construction for a year and a half when the family moved westward. He was a flagger/sign man. As a flagger, you go with a partner so that way you can swap out after x amount of time. As a sign man, you might also be assigned a partner, or be sent by yourself depending on the scale of the job, set up your sign, then sit there for 4-14 hours depending on how long the job site needs your sign. He had some days he'd just watch TH-cam on his phone in the truck from sun up to sun down, and yes you aren't allowed to do anything else on the site because your job is to make sure the blinky arrow sign works, and that's it.
FYI John Glenn's Friendship 7 mission encountered several "issues", including a potentially fatal equipment failure that caused NASA to cut the flight short. Practically all the early space missions had multiple problems. They just worked through them.
I have a college degree in Construction Management, and I found it heartwarming and inspirational you were kind enough to include and represent the CM profession on an equal footing with Engineering. I have found absolutely, bar none the most difficult thing in my career is to work in an unbalanced interpersonal environment and deal with financial and design stake holders with entitlement issues. Thank you for your kindness!
From the engineering side, I've often found that CM people are the only ones that truly know their stuff. Engineering has been suffering for about 30 years from not taking adequate time and effort to mentor juniors.
I have learned enough about large scale construction to appreciate that one of the most complicated and stressful jobs on any job site is often that of the general contractor/project manager, the guys who are responsible for the timeline and arranging all the various subs to show up on the right day with the right tools finding waiting on site or bringing with them the right supplies and with the right sense of time management to get their work done and inspected and approved before the NEXT sub shows up to pick up where they left off. The idea that something like a sports stadium, building, or above ground/subsurface utility project can be planned out TO THE DAY before the project is even bid is something I now perfectly understand but also find completely mind blowing at the same time! Then, if one sub doesn't come through, it screws up the schedule for everyone else and makes people hot under the collar. A simple example, if the guys putting the shingles on your roof get there before the decking has been done, you won't get them back tomorrow. It may take them a week or longer to fit you back in the schedule and they're not gonna be happy about it because it may mean that their crew doesn't get paid that day! All the respect in the world to construction management, project management, general contractors, and similar professions!
Where I live the problem is less "Workers standing around" and more "No Workers in sight at all" There are construction sites that stay in place for literal years and only every now and again you can actually see some workers and machines at the site doing something. It can't be that hard to replace some asphalt, so what is going on there?!
Also sometimes that waiting is intentional, you will notice that when a road gets paved they let people drive on the gravel for about a week and then put the asphalt down. This is to let the freshly disturbed sediments/dirt settle and compact to prevent settling after the project is finished, depending on the exact project they may take various measures to encurage faster settling or need to just wait longer. (Its no good ro have your skyscraper fall over because the dirt settled after construction) And of course lots of unexpected problems can crop up and force construction to stop while the design team / client administration solves the problem.
I have worked in many facets of highway and bridge construction and maintenance for the last 21 years. From materials testing to inspection to traffic control system maintenance and I can tell you that at no time did we have people that just stood around all day. I've had people yell at me for "leaning on a shovel" while I was keeping a very close eye on a conduit full of fiber optics so an MEO excavating for a roadway failure wouldn't take down a massive chunk of communication grid on a Friday afternoon while he dug. I really appreciate this video (and this channel in general).
I'm in the "biz" so I get all of this. Strangely the main thing to caught my eye in the video was your stock footage of the construction "people" walking across the work site. I realize they are all models and actors but somehow they found proper boots for the guys but the woman model on the right was clearly not in CSA or PPE footwear. I do too many safety inspections, LOL.
I'm in safety, I saw that one too. Wouldn't let her on my site without proper footwear. When I was a kid, I made the mistake of spending my first few hours working in a warehouse without steel toes. Smashed and banged my feet on everything. Never did it again
that caught my eye too. however, i thought of it as impractical or inconvenient - i did not think 'construction site safety rules'. i would've been okay if she merely wore sports shoes - one could at least hop around easily in those. im not a construction safety officer or anything construction-related.
7:50 Bridge replacement cost should be definitely considered during the initial design process and that cost should include estimate for the problems caused by the bridge being out of order for the whole replacement period. In practice, this cost is nearly always underestimated which results in bridges not being replaced in time because the bridge being out of order for any time period is considered too big a problem.
Noooooooooo How dare you! Engineers knows best. Rather let it collapse and kill 100 people. (EG morandi bridge in italy). A design never done before, maybe there was a reason nobody did it. Nah don't know , don't care
I currently work in an office, and I can attest that not all of my time is spent doing actual work ( case in point, commenting on this video ). I also worked as an underground utility worker, and can attest that we did not spend all of our time doing work. We had entire days where we were told to "look busy" because shipments were delayed, or the weather was enough that we couldn't work, but we weren't allowed to go home until we were on the job site for a certain amount of hours.
Very good explanations. I too was one of those standing around, usually with a group. Believe me, work was being performed. The key to success is to have a good plan at the outset, work the plan but be receptive to necessary changes, and don't make errors. No one in construction "stands around" for no reason.
Here's a little fun fact: Tunnels and underpasses can actually float upwards even when it has over a thousand foundation piles underneath this. During the design they have to make sure at the end there will be enough weight within the tunnel or underpass so it wont float upwards because of groundwater
Ha,ha, seen this on small (domestic) foul waste treatment plants installed in "wet" sites. A five cubic meter tank put in a hole and back filled with pea shingle. A year later the ground water has risen and someone comes and pumps out the tank. Result; a five ton upward force. Up comes the tank tearing its connections off as it rises.
There is planned obsolescence, and then there is "planning based on budget and overall long-term operating costs." Both may lead to a shorter engineered lifetime but they are absolutely not the same as suggested here. Planned obsolescence is a specific term that refers to shortening the lifespan of a product with the specific purpose of increasing profits through repeat customers. The decisions you describe here may be commonly misunderstood as planned obsolescence, but they are easily understood by a willing engineer. Planned obsolescence, almost by definition, supplies a lower quality experience, more waste, and a higher overall cost to consumer. It takes advantage of lack of insight into durability, limited competition, brand lock-in and/or human nature to accomplish this.
Especially when it's a large public company and you have to keep costs as low as possible. You realise that spending more money on something that isn't really a big selling point is kind of a waste of money, especially when you want people to buy the newer thing when it comes out. I can understand with things like electronics how tech is always changing and even though most people don't use half the features in their stuff, some things need to change in order to keep up with security (as an example), but appliances... Soo irritated with how cheaply many companies make some stuff. $900 for a machine with maybe $250 of stuff in it. No wonder why the company is so massive and wealthy.
Normal engineering is designing a part's thickness to balance cost and durability. Engineering for planned obsolescence is designing a part's thickness so it breaks just after the warranty period even if it costs more to manufacture it that way. Modern engineering is adding plausible deniability to the latter.
Can confirm when I've been on a construction site with my current job every time somebody standing around it's not because they're being lazy it's because something else is going on where they literally can't do their part and they're waiting for the other guy to get done and out of their way. It is the most hurry up and weight industry I have ever worked in but it's also the one that's paid me the best.
I work signals/switches on the tracks. And I love when a customer goes, "Yooo, why you guys always just standing around?" Umm....because the train is sitting over the switch. If you get on the train maybe and keep it moving. So will we. Lmao.
"Is your car currently on top of our work site?" ..Yeah "Would you like it to be permanently attached to our work site?" ..No "Then we'll wait to pour concrete til you move. Please move."
Yep, working on a live system involves standing around waiting for windows. I was involved in comissioning an upgrade/extension to a commuter line, and between the morning/evening trains, there were two trains that ran midday. Those passengers looked out the window and saw dozens of workers standing around, but they were all waiting for the train to go by so they could get back to work.
I really enjoy Civil engineering. I have my own excavation company and have helped design highways and bridges. Hearing these explanations on here always makes me happy because alot of people refuse to understand the miracles of construction.
I'm an information technology engineer retired and I just wanted to drop in and say how much I really like your videos and your knowledge and your attitude and your delivery and what else can I say terrific! You're absolutely one of my favorite channels Grady and I will stay subscribed as long as you've got a channel!
Really good video. I worked in construction during college and experienced first-hand that there are times when you're inbetween tasks on the job that looks exactly like standing around to an on-looker, not to mention taking mandated breaks to stay hydrated and avoid being over-worked. One thing I'd like to point out about gov't contracts is that there is an exceptionally important term that *always* gets left out: contracts aren't awarded to the lowest bidder, but to the lowest price *technically acceptable*. When a contract is spec'd out for bidding, ballpark estimates of costs are included in the work done by the gov't prior to putting it up for bid, and the winning bid is going to be the one that meets all specifications while offering the lowest price.
As a safety professional with 27 years on the job, the past 15 in geotech I applaud your videos. The behind the scenes work is what most people never see. Trust me, there really is no such thing as a lazy field craft in our business, they would not last on most projects. Appearances are very deceiving, the majority of my 50 to 60 hour week is very busy and stressful, so if you see us “standing around” I invite you to spend a day in our boots.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I've had to explain the standing around thing to people more times than I can count! I've had someone accuse me of being lazy on one flagging assignment. I looked him in the eye and said "I keep people from dying." She stopped at a police officer a few blocks away from the site. A while later, the officer came by to tell me that she had complained about my "attitude" and got angry at him for laughing and telling her that meant that I take my job seriously. And the hurry-up-and-wait thing is the main reason for "standing around"; and annoys the heck out of most construction workers. We don't like standing around unless IT IS the job. And, regarding the comment from Glenn, it's usually taken out of context. He was equal parts scared, excited, and confident. If he truly doubted the quality of equipment, he had the power, authority, and the gumption to call off a launch. Lowest bidder contracts go bad when person, or people, in charge of taking bids don't look at the details of the bid or the record of the bidder.
@@phileeepaye1641 Well, that's the thing. With most of what he describes, they're not actually "just standing around". It just looks like it to outsiders. As a Flagger, I am constantly on my toes with my ears open and my head on a swivel; focused and constantly aware of both traffic and the job site. I am NOT "just standing around" though it can look like it... And feel like it when traffic is low, like on rural back roads where you can go ten minutes or more between cars.
I really enjoyed this video. I love how you "turned the camera around" sort of speak...looking in on office workers throughout the day... what would you see. LOL Hilarious.
As a Mining Engineer this is nice to see. I would love to see more videos related to mining. Mining is a very key part to our lives and we wouldn't be living the way we do without it.
Talks about Roman concrete, shows the Parthenon in Greece made of stone. I mean, it doesn't really matter. It's just stock footage that gets the point across, old vs new. But it's kinda funny for a Greek like me. Great videos! I've learned so much from them!
Can't tell you how important that planning stage is before a bid. An old teacher told me about something that happened in a company he was working with - the company left out 3 floors in their planning and set the bid way lower by accident! Lost millions on the project and almost had a lot of people fired.
I am a professor of theoretical physics and really enjoy your channel. Besides your voice and demeanor keeps you interested in your topics. For those who don't know that the pyramids were used as a means to create power. I was introduced to a book called the Pharoh's Pump. The pyramid was a water pump to divert water from higher ground to lower ground (Like the one used where you had two dams). Used for ionizing water which was tuned down to a frequency to produce electricity. Now I love all of your designs (like the one to show how a cooling tower works). Grady this is the ultimate challenge to you and to all of academia. Prove to the unbeliever's the truth about the pyramids and the use of electricity. An engineer such as yourself should be able to use the information for you to build the pump, along the lines as Nicola Tesla's design which also uses the same framework. This is your big opportunity Grady to prove to those less educated on the true purpose of the pyramids. The pump works so can you replicate the feat? This one idea Grady could take you and this idea to a whole new level. The book is called The Pharoh's Pump. -dr.
as a disabled boilermaker I did 15 years keeping a lead recycling smelter running, staying hydrated is the biggest use of time when work is not being done, summer is hot so I would think it's no different in industry being discussed in this video Plus those workers have to deal with the elements minus 20° swinging to 105°, that's brutal
Few people realizew how hard jobs like that can be. I felt terrible for a coworker last year: we had a freak heat wave that caused temperatures 30° above the average for that time of year. He was stuck working in an attic most of the day when it was 100° outside and over 120° in the attic. Another time a coworker was working in a class 4 arc-flash suit (picture a hazmat suit or a bomb disposal suit for an idea of what they look like) in a humid factory that thanks to the machinery was around 90° and near max humidity. I dont know how my roommate does his job though, he works in a factory and may fill multiple roles day to day, and since they have wet materials going into drying/curing ovens on a convayer belt system there's consonantly heat and humid air coming off the machines and the production line. In the summer it can mean 90° and 100% humidity for all of his 12 hour shift but in winter it can mean dealing with a 75-80° interior thats wet and humid until they have to open the giant doors and suddenly freezing cold air gets blown in and you're suddenly soaking wet with sweat and water but also suffering from a near instant 50+ drop in temperature.
And truly, it's all three of these things in some balance. It's more about how you can't get more of one without having to balance it with the other. Want it to last longer or be done faster? It's going to cost more. Want it cheap? You're either going to have to take your time and wait for a good deal or lower your standards.
A 100K sqft single story warehouse with 40' floor to bottom of beams, 20 year roof, including 5K ft of office space, built to code at a certain site, and similar specs and including a certain dollar amount paid for the work----given out to 4 or 5 firms asking them what they can build and how much time would it take. Something like that is one other model, the winner is responsible for design and build. Since the max price is fixed, bidders can think about speed and quality of the build.
Ammonia Refrigeration operator reporting in. Coincidentally last night, we had a "hurry up and wait" scenario. I had filed for a Hot Works permit because I needed to remove decommissioned struts and pipe racking. To do this, I needed a grinder. Our work was on the roof at sundown because logistically that was the only time we had an opening. So from approximately 7:30pm until 9:00pm we were working on the dark, on the roof with a grinder creating sparks. Now the roof membrane could catch fire, so we needed a fire extinguisher, blankets, water access, etc. To do all of this, we needed a Spotter or Attendee who's sole job was to make sure no fires started, or that if one did start it was extinguished. Then, we needed to perform a Fire Watch for 30 minutes after the work finishes, because of all the heat from cutting a bunch of steel struts off. The Fire Watch lasted from the end of work at 9:00pm for 30 minutes until 9:30pm. So someone last night was paid for 2 hours to literally stand around and wait, from 7:30pm to 9:30pm... waiting to see if a fire began.
When I worked water distribution, we would often be called out to repair a water break. We would get to the site, do as much prep work as we could(locating the water lines and where the failure actually was) but we could not start digging till the other utilities showed up to mark their lines and that could mean us standing there for an hour or two till they showed and finished.
And importantly, what are you supposed to do in the mean time? It's not like you can just go do another job -- you are needed here the moment you can start and it costs a lot to be moving people and equipment around between jobs.
Sounds like whoever you worked for should have bought some folding chairs to add to your work vehicles. No reason to waste energy standing around and waiting when you could sit and wait instead.
I was on a job in the city, standing around when a group of contractors came through to change some street signs. Whoever did the tender got one person for every required ticket/license, so they had way too many people. They had 2 people to move the cones, a spoter for the boom lift, a boom lift operator and a bloke who did the traffic plan. There was a fair bit of standing around.
I'm an electrician and I got paid to stand on a job site for a whole month just to make sure nothing went wrong.. because down time would cost the company $10,000 an hour...
Buddy of mine works in the auto industry and has a similar setup. He programs the robots on the line to build X or Y but a lot of the time he's just sitting around in case something goes wrong. Because the cost of the line going down is in the hundreds of thousands every hour... Its weird thing but necessary >_
I'm an electrician and I work for myself. On a job waiting for parts delivery. So I guess I'm technically paying myself to watch youtube right now?
This is the joy of cybersec as well. Everyone ignores you until there's a problem, and then it's all your fault when it is.
It's also almost always cheaper and more efficient to have 1 or 2 skilled supervisors, rather than making all 20-some odd workers have the training and expertise that would be required.
@@SpacemanXC i would fire myself lol
Been there!! I do pump bypasses,, if they pay for “pump watch” grab my iPad and lawn chair,, every 20 minutes, look in a manhole.
Ive moved some tons of gravel this week with a shovel and wheel barrow. You DO need lots of breaks if you want to be able to last the day or week.
actually the father of the modern workplace tested that. someone who takes a break half the time does more work per day.
I moved about 800lbs of planks with my dad yesterday and it’s really surprising sometimes how hard it can be. Even though it was only for maybe an hour or two I needed a couple of breaks.
Hahahahaha! 😂
So what you're saying is... you're not a machine?
Excuses... Get your lazy asses back to work! Just kidding. Respect!
I asked a bunch of "standing around" workers one day why there were 4 guys watching one guy dig in the hole - the answer was "Only one person can fit in the hole". I then watched them swap diggers out every few minutes and got the hole dug a lot faster then a single guy could do it. 5 guys doing 1 minute of hard work moves more dirt then one guy digging hard for 5 minutes.
They just needed smaller people. They're closer to the ground so that's an advantage.
Lol! Good on you for asking.
@@1pcfred Child labour may still make a return.
@@kellychuba we can always hope. I mean why waste the vigor of youth? Harness that energy for something useful.
@@1pcfred Hire more hobbits! Problem solved! 😂
Addendum: Note that Dwarves are widely known for their subterranean excavation skills, but no way was I gonna go there.
Recently switched to a manual trade and the first thing that struck me is always being on display. Office workers take breaks, goof off, play on their phones, rest, stretch, sit back and think. It's all part of being human, as opposed to a robot. But tradesmen working outdoors are publicly visible all day. It's frustrating to work hard for 2 hours at something most people couldn't handle doing, only to take a 15 minute break and know all the people driving past are mentally accusing you of laziness.
@SealTeamPepega fair shout
Full of yourself much?
@@boiledelephant interesting name 🤔
@@yinggamer7762 It started as a sort of fever dream interpretation of the first Harry Potter novel when I was a child, from the hilarious school uniform anecdote. Why I still use it is harder to explain...
Than quit and find another job just because your union don't mean you stand and yap all day.
People often ask, "Is the glass half empty or half full?" The engineer responds, "The glass is twice as big as it needs to be." Cost/benefit analysis is engineering in a nutshell.
My general answer (to portray a sense of optimism) is "it doesn't matter how full or empty the glass is, what's important is that it's refillable." But I hadn't heard this one and really like it, I'll be sure to use it if/when I see a good opportunity lol
@@Stormynormy42 I'm going to use this new saying. I like it. Very fitting in today's world!
@@kyleparker733 I came up with it while in prison, and keeping that attitude has helped me to "refill" my life instead of letting my past keep me "half empty". Hopefully others can use it as motivation/inspiration to better their lives as well!
Don't forget the economist, who'll be asking the engineer if we really need a glass at all 😂
I've once heard it said, "Anyone can build a bridge, but only an engineer can build one that barely stands."
Used to work on paving roads long ago. This one time, the foreman who watches and measures the height of the paver was gone for about 30 mins. Little did they know the paver had dipped .5 inches during that time and that who section was ruined. Cost the company about $200k because that one person standing around monitoring the level of the paver was absent.
The foreman should have delegated someone else to monitor paver height for that 30mins.
@@yommmrr yeah that's really poor site management.
@@yommmrr Quit posting replies that make sense! Do it now! 🍻
@@yommmrr sure, but that underscores the point that _someone_ needs to do it
The words of a Superman that wants to fix the world himself. If you want that, start your own company.
Quality comes from the top down, and construction is a job where people are told to work and not think. The foreman knows better than you do, the inspector knows better than the foreman, the engineer knows better than the inspector, the owner makes the decisions, not the engineer, and the owner bends over backwards for the client while trying to cut every corner possible so they do "just enough".
My whole job revolves around me being in a building making sure boilers are running. 99% of the time I do nothing but that other 1% saves us from losing the entire facility
that job sounds important but probably shouldn't pay as much as those who are doing the real work, yea?
Literally homer simpson
This is why we need better AI
@@ravinraven6913 person has job making sure a building doesn't explode, but is somehow not a "real" job...
@@ericsmith1517 some people believe that if you arent hammering nails 24 7 to increase a companys revenue you arent working..
Regarding the "foundation on bedrock" myth, Chilean here. Bedrock can move and it does, sometimes quite violently, so it isn't a guarantee of durability.
There's an old church in Santiago (Iglesia de San Francisco), a very big building, only survivor from 16-17th century. The reason of its resilience against earthquakes was recently found: its foundations lay over a bed of round rocks deliberately placed there; the whole thing rolls over the rocks when there's a quake.
That's engineering.
I work as a ‘scientist’ (whatever that means) for an engineering firm and spend 90% of time on construction sites standing around with traffic controllers, drillers, service locators and engineers waiting for one of the mess of contractors to figure out what’s going on so we can drill a couple holes, log some cores and get a couple samples. It’s like herding cats in a burning hedge maze….
"Whatever that means"...how do you not know or understand your job title. ? 🤔
@@agnez1739 Reported for spam....plenty of porn on the Internet no one needs your virus ridden links.
we never keep the core sample technicians waiting. Take your slumps and skedaddle!
@@heresjohnny602 Saying I’m a scientist is insulting to science. I used to work in research before I got into consulting. As a researcher I would actually apply the scientific method and what not, but most of my current job as a ‘scientist’ in an engineering firm is not actually science. It’s mainly helping clients navigate confusing regulatory frameworks and writing reports full of nicely worded bs so some multibillion company can say they did their environmental due diligence. ‘Scientific consultant’ would be a more accurate job description.
@@heresjohnny602 Ah, it must be fun taking issues with semantics. Seems as though OP understands exactly what his/her job requires, just not what they label his/her job as.
As a custodian who cleans office buildings, I can confirm that office workers do a lot of sitting around. 🤣
As a former office worker, I dispute that. I nod off quite a lot in the cubicle as well.
So much waiting in office work. It’s insane how much of my time is just wasted.
Many workers do a specific batch job and finishes it. They are required to remain present because they migh be needed for anothor batch. it's the nature of some jobs, and it reduces stress, resulting in fewer mistakes.
@@WCM1945 My comment was a pun, but I appreciate the straightforward and informative reply!
I always laugh. The same people making fun of the construction worker gets winded after walking up 3 flights of stairs.
As for the 'roadway crews are always standing around' thing, I used to work residential construction when I was in college, and I can tell you that being the young guy on the job with the next youngest person in their 50's, I was the one doing the heavy lifting. When you just finished carrying enough bundles of roofing up a ladder to do the entire roof, you can bet that I took 15 minutes to catch my breath and regain my energy, and the one time a homeowner complained, my boss handed them a bundle of roofing and told them to carry it up the ladder. The homeowner never complained again.
Good boss. Definitely not the norm. Way too many people throw everything out the window the second a client complains, no matter how nonsensical.
and the homeowner got a discount for lazy work
your boss is awesome
It's none of the clients business what the workers are doing unless the terms of the contract aren't being met.
@@showmeanedge incorrect
I was paid to just stand around as part of my construction crew. Occasionally I would hold stuff or grab a box, but the whole point of 16 year old me being there was so the requirement of a three-man crew was fulfilled. I wasn't there to actually do anything because it was specialized work and the two other guys were the only ones who could really do it and they didn't want or need help but were required to have a third person. I got paid minimum wage to hover around and watch them lay the tile and occasionally grab something slightly out of someone's reach
People also underrate how frustrating it is to do that. They talk about it like it's easy. But in terms of stress and mental fatigue I think it's harder to be the squire than to be the person doing the real work, because the squire can never relax and is always being bossed about.
Oh man thats the Dream job
@@brunispero9301 you're still outside in the heat for hours
@@karkador awwwww wittle babbie might sweat a bit, blue collar really does filter out weak beta cucks thats why I love it.
@@karkador As a flagger for road construction during the summer, it may look like I’m standing around doing nothing, holding a slow/stop sign, like it’s an easy job. But to anyone that says my job is easy, I dare them to wake up at 4am to catch a bus at 5am to have an hour long bus ride to get to an office at 6am, so that you can drive out of town to start work at 7am, then work 14 hours out in 30°C heat with the sun bearing down on you until 9pm, then get dropped off at home at 10pm, shower quick, have a bit to eat, try to wind down and get to sleep so that you can wake up at 4am the next day to do it all over again, and then do that for 6 days a week, all summer long, and THEN try to tell me it’s easy. It’s not.
One of my FEM teacher loved this quote "Literally anyone can design a bridge, but only an engineer can design a bridge that barely stands"
Finite Elements are _infinitely_ awesome.
@@guardrailbiter true, so much years passed, and I still continue to optimize my 3d prints with it
As someone with a Bachelor's in Physics and then a Master's in electrical engineering, I can confirm that your teacher is spot on. Anytime I make something for personal use I just make it way stronger than needed because it is faster and easier than sitting there and trying to figure out the minimum specs needed.
Do I have the ability to make something just strong enough? Yes, but then I'd need to sit here and look for the right equations and try to source parts that are just strong enough for the job. Vs just getting parts that are so much stronger that I don't need any calculations to say that they will hold up.
@@zebraloverbridget This is how my brain works. My dad is a welding engineer and he can tell me everything about types of metal and structure of things. But when I build stuff like gates or even simple things like bumpers or stiffeners for vehicles i always just over build it because finding out what’s right takes to much time or isn’t cost effective on a small scale.
Grady used this line in an older video!
Two thoughts about the "standing around doing nothing" bit.
1. Most sites have breaks at the same time every day, and most trades coordinate to break with each other. So if you're say, driving by the same worksite at the same time Monday through Friday, you might be driving by a job site on break every time.
2. One of my tasks that required "standing around" was Hole Watch at a refinery. I tracked every person that went in and out of an enclosed space and all I was ALLOWED to do was watch a gas meter. If something changed inside the unit, it was my responsibility to make sure everyone got out immediately. I couldn't be distracted by labor and potentially put lives at risk. That's going to be a similar story for a lot of safety people, whether they're hole watch, fire watch, or any other situation that creates extra risk.
PEOPLE STANDING AROUND = MONEY LOSS
IF THE COMPANY WANTS THIS... YOU THE CUSTOMER ARE PAYING FOR IT
# 3 Union rules mandate a 15 minute break every 20 minutes.
Yes, when I did construction these guys were called "spotters" and sometimes there needed to be two of them. This would be for whenever the crane would be moving loads overhead, or there was a danger of things falling from above, and a road or an area of the worksite had to be blocked off and nobody allowed through, some jobs which were higher risk also required spotters.
@@bobroberts2371 I can happily report that union rules require one 15 minute break in the morning and a half an hour lunch in the afternoon, for regular 8 hour days anyway. Maybe your union is different. 😉
@@BadPenny3 In the 1980's I watched as unions decimated local companies by protecting non performers. strikes over nothing, work slowdowns , pulling security out of the guard shack at gun point then burning it down , destroying local landmarks , seeding streets around the plant with bent nails ( with local residents suffering the most ).
I've had more than a couple of union workers brag how they would hide out for most of the day and then double shift to get something done.
In the 2000's I worked for a non union company that hired union contractors for major equipment installs. The union mechanical workers would not remove 2 1/4-20 bolts holding an EMPTY electrical cable tray from a conveyor because " that is the electricians job " . We waited for another of their breaks and took the bolts out ourselves..
There are more instances where union = no progress but that should be enough for now.
I call this standing around "leaning on your shovel." I am in IT, not construction anymore, but I sometimes get called into meetings to "lean on my shovel" - being present to share information, give instructions when needed or just to observe.
I'm a landscaper and I call shovels "leaning sticks"
I'm a software developer, and for me literally watching this video is the exact analog to "leaning on your shovel" :)
I get called into meetings like that sometimes. Often, my only contribution is that I'm the only one present who felt the need to take notes. It looks like 'playing on my phone' because that's what I'm taking notes on. Quicker than writing and easier to read!
Anyone who complains about said notes after realising they needed some can just deal with them being written in a way I'll understand, including jargon from industries I've previously worked in.
“If there’s time to lean, there’s time to clean!”
Lol
That’s important work dude!
You’re holding walls, up.
Keeping floors, down.
Shh 🤫 we don't want people to hear about pair programming...
As a civil engineer who spent a few years working for a Geotech company, I've seen a lot of residential construction. For pipes and utilities, who comprises a lot of work out on the street, there were 5-6 man crews where at any given time it would look like guys were just standing around. It's just the nature of some construction. Many times they have to wait for the machine operator to finish digging a section before they can get back to assembling or placing something.
Exactly. Plus in the mornings they need to have their meetings where the supervisor and H&S officer give them updates and instructions.
I found most cases of guys standing around was my(or a diff) dumb 70 year old stubborn Italian yapping about how he’s done it his way for 50 years, while also showing you everything NOT to do(unintentionally)
I was a town engineer shared between a dozen towns. I used to really investigate bids. The most common problem with low bidders was fraudulent bonds. It made it easy to disqualify questionable and bad contractors. When one protested I told him that we'll let the Attorney General decide if this was criminal fraud. I never saw nor heard from him again. The other problem was attempted substitution of materials. They tried to change my contract! You do a very good series of videos. Even though I've been retired for 11 years, I'm still interested in Civil Engineering. Happy Summer Solstice. Good Luck, Rick
Yeah, there have been many a project that didn't last as long as it should because of these under the table substitutions and ill-advised corner-cutting.
Hell, most "engineering disasters" end up being the result of such acts.
If I were told to select a contractor for something and couldn't vet them, I'd go with nothing cheaper than the 3rd cheapest option(or a higher cost one depending on my selection pool), because I know the cheapest options are pretty much *never* good enough.
@@InfernosReaper The cheapest option always ends up with overrunning costs. You have the F-35 fighter jet as a good example.
Thanks Rick.
I have no idea because I am no expert. But I always read in the newspaper about projects that require more money than planed. And in Germany it seems even if there was a mistake in the estimation we pay them more as long as they get the job done :/
The other thing I think is highly qustionable. A company that did a really bad job on project isn't disqualified for the next project. So one company did 2 jobs in my region that got both much more expensive than planned...as someone with no idea what I am taling about I always wonder, how can it be so hard to build a roundabout ?
Oh yeah, dunno how many times I've seen jobs ripped up and redone becasue of shonky contractors. How many times I'd made comment about substandard, insufficient or just plain obviously under specced and being told, 'nah, don't worry, we've done hundreds of these' then see the contractor back in a month to fix it. Incompetence and liars.
One of my favorites, laborers who say, you've got me from the neck down and in the next breath ask how can they get on here. They look at you as though you're a prick when you walk off shaking your head.
As someone who studies archaeology, I can also add that a large number of ancient buildings we see are reconstructed. Many of them were found in pieces and put back together by archaeologists. Even the ones which have remain intact have had to be reinforced over the ages, just like modern infrastructure.
people reusing parts is a big reason many were in pieces so it's not fair to act like it was poorly built (the opposite really)
To be fair the Parthenon survived 2000 years until it was blown up, and it is still mostly standing
@@maksrambe3812 Indeed, but not without regular reinforcement by people who continued to care about it. It's also one of the more exceptional pieces. For every parthenon there are hundreds of ruined monuments.
definitely! and look how many ancient structures were sourced from other even more ancient ruins. this happened a lot in, for example, ancient Egypt. there are tons of pharaohs and even entire dynasties we know nothing about because later civilizations and rulers sourced their own construction projects from those old civilizations.
And the reason why so many different cultures built pyramids and why they are still standing is,
because making a giant pile is the best and most stable way to build tall structures with stone.
As a road laborer for 6 years “hurry up and wait” was one of the most common statements in my life, and also waiting for materials (hot asphalt for me) often delays everything!
Too true. My company does road safety barriers and most of our down time on site is spent waiting for trucks because the office couldn’t make sure we had enough to finish the job.
As an asphalt worker, I'm sure you're either waiting for an asphalt truck, waiting for the sweeper to finish or waiting for the profiler
What really pisses me off when working roadside with traffic management is the amount of drivers that do NOT slow down to the posted speed, also the many drivers that speed up, Morons.
Timing is hard to judge for complex tasks. Even given that labor is the most expensive component, keeping one person (or a team of people) waiting, is often cheaper than holding up the entire worksite to wait for them.
@@MrARock001 ya that’s true. Our job is weird though because usually we’re the only ones on site, or other companies are waiting for us to finish before they can start, so it’s always better for us to finish as fast as possible.
I was an industrial electrician for 30 years. Once in a while I had to step through a door away from the hot dirty and kinda dark factory floor and work on electrical problems in bright air conditioned offices with their comfy (literally) $1000 chairs. While those office workers were hanging around the water cooler or or likely looking at their stocks online, they were often talking about the lazy line workers on the other side of the wall. The vast majority of people that work on the line have every second of the day mapped out for them, time study makes sure they are never idle. They can't even go to the bathroom when they need to without first getting permission and someone to take their place on the line. The same office worker that could take a break anytime they needed to harped about how the line worker got too much break time. I worked in an office for a while, a whole lot of time was taken up with what was called networking and on Friday people disappeared early to beat the traffic. Call it what you want, if those guys on the line had time to do it, it would be called something a lot more negative. I am sometimes surprised any work gets done in an office.
The thing about offices is that no real work happens in them, 90% of the work done is pointless tasks made to make the company look larger
@@calebbarnhouse496 I can not disagree
Absolutely agree.
When someone at a worksite or in a workshop isn't working, it is very obvious, because they are idle.
When someone in an office isn't working, it's not that obvious. They sit at their desk, by their computer. Reading, flipping through papers. It looks the same wether they are productive or not.
Some manual workers are genuinely lazy, just like some office workers are. It's just a fact, but most aren't.
In fact, the more you lazy about, the slower the day will pass.
At a worksite, sometimes you need to stop for a while and consult your colleagues to solve a problem. Communication between different subcontractors is extremely important and it is always time well spent.
I've been to jobsites with a hundred guys from eight different contract firms, all working their asses off but no-one is coordinating the work and no-one is communicating. It is absolute chaos, and extremely ineffective.
And as the electrician you were doing the least amount of work out of anyone in the factory lol
@@ErikNemo More than some supervision, but far less than those people on the line. I do thank God for his favor.
I used to work for overhead network construction in the then state owned telecoms company. A farmer once complained to the office that he had been watching a two man crew sitting in their van drinking tea for a full 45 minutes. Having ranted about laziness, lack of supervision, how easy we all had it and that we should all be sacked because we were useless, he was asked what time it happened. Turns out the crew were on their lunch hour.
Dude I work in hospitality and someone complained about me having a smoke on my break with 2 others that just finished work, this is the sole reason I never judge too quickly on anything!
@@chingymofo1 smokers are jokers
Lucky to have whole hour for lunch
@@chingymofo1 as a healthcare worker, I've been explicitly told by patients and their families that since I'm in public service, how dare I take breaks for lunch or even get a (weekend) day off. Load of bull.
@@bossaudio12 depends on the job. I had one for a while where the requirement was 30 mins per 4 hours, and since we ran 9 hour shifts the preference was to do 4 hrs, take a full hour break, then work the other 4 hours.
Current job is max 2 hrs worked at a time, 15 mins required between 2 hour periods, a full 30 min break required per 6 hours (in addition to others), but we give 30-60 minute breaks when we can, and sometimes go 30-30 or 60-60 rotations.
A friend repairs construction equipment. While usually he is called out when stuff is already broken, on tight schedules like closing an important road over night he is called on stand by. Paid to do nothing just in case.
And money well spent. I have often arranged for people or equipment to be on standby because the time lost waiting for them to be called in would be huge or just couldn't be tolerated in the schedule no matter what it cost.
The 'Stand By' status can be pretty apt 😄
Major closures may also involve early completion incentives. I've been involved in projects that had $10000 per day early completion incentives for a scheduled 1 week road closure. I think one of them reopened the road 4 days early. So yeah, having a few extra people around can make a difference. Also want to avoid the $10000 per day penalty for not meeting schedule.
He's not paid for what he does, he's paid for what he knows.
@@alanjohansen4022 Those are contract details that as you said can make or break you.
I worked physical labor for a long time and sometimes people are just standing around. They're not all inspectors, quality control, or jobsite supervisors. It's not a myth and it doesn't need to be explained or excused. People don't work all day nonstop in an office either. There are often other things to do but not everyone is going to be motivated to work nonstop. We aren't machines.
So, your excuse for 4 guys standing around, talking and laughing while one guy digging a hole is that people in offices don't work all day as well?
@@lopezlopez7132 no. The excuse is that physical labour is hard and people need breaks. We don't have unlimited energy, sometimes digging can only be done by 1 person at a time so we take turns doing the work. More than 1 person digging the same utility out of the ground can cause problems and be dangerous in some cases. As construction labourers, we all put in our effort and time into getting projects done. Just because we sometimes stand around doesn't mean we aren't working.
@@lopezlopez7132 also sometimes you need to wait for materials to be delivered, trucks can only go as fast as the speed limits and different things get in the way, such as traffic, specific truck routes that need to be taken, and weather. Materials don't just magically appear, they need to be delivered, and if there's no space for materials to be delivered beforehand like in the case of gravel, there's not always space for large piles of gravel to sit and wait, the materials need to be delivered as we need them.
@@ewanwiebe And you don't see any contradiction in your statement "Just because we sometimes stand around doesn't mean we aren't working"? You're standing around and it means you're working?
@@ewanwiebe I used to own a business. If my employees had to wait for "materials to be delivered," or something like that, they were given other tasks to do. I understand to "stand around" for 5 minutes waiting for materials or something like that, but 4 guys standing around for half a day because of traffic somewhere or no space to put gravel is a waste of time and money.
As a part office, part field crew I can confidently say that standing around boosts moral and many good ideas often come from it.
There should be an asterisk on the lowest bidder section: it depends on WHY they are the lowest bidder. A lot depends on the contractors understanding of the specs and drawings. And I've seen more than a few contractors low ball a bid just to win the job, and then try and make up for everything they didn't include with change orders.
You only make money because of the variations!
@@TonyRule Often you get penalised though for a variation, especially if your variation was due to you cutting corners.
I've seen that with the sewer authority, I'm the chairman of. The initial construction and the redesign both ended up in court. I still have a picture of a yacht, called change order with the dingy behind it called original contract. Then I have seen profit margins go from 10% on a change order to 15% over the last decade.
@@SeanBZA Not if you know what you're doing and follow the plans to the letter.
I don't even know why they bother with the bidding, if then every project is like 4x over budget.
"With an unlimited budget my 2 year old could design a bridge that carries monster trucks over the English channel for a million years" - Outstanding! I struggle explaining why all solutions work, but aren't equal. Thank's for a great new example!
Actually, if I take that quote literally, I do wonder how a bridge that would ACTUALLY last a million years would look. Can it even be made with concrete?
@@durendenmp812 start by filling in the channel entirely with lava
Simple, just attach a rope to both sides of the canal and close it like a stitch
@@durendenmp812 You might want to read "The Clock Of The Long Now: Time and Responsibility", about trying to design and build a clock to last 10,000 years. There are a lot of unique technical challenges, including that no material is tested and rated to last anywhere near that long. One of the solutions is to use brittle materials that either work or spectacularly fail -- if they fail under load, it will be right away.
@@durendenmp812 It'd probably have to be an ongoing mega-project with constant maintenance from generations of people who live around the structure... which just shows the engineering absurdity of trying to build something to last so long. Especially since within 5,000 years someone will almost certainly render it useless by making some sort of radical new transportation system. Why even bother with bridges when orbital transporters or person-size flying machines are as trivial as bicycles are now?
"Anyone can make a bridge stand, but only engineers can make a bridge barely stand"
-Sun Tzu "Art of engineering"
I Think after watching this it’s the first time I understand this sentence .. 😁
As a kid we had a lesson on bridge engineering on a school field trip, as a joke I said to the engineer “let’s be real, the way it actually works is the bridge is just huge, so it can support the weight of the cars”. He looked mad and pointed at one of the load-bearing beams on the bridge that was vibrating slightly due to the weight of the cars.
@@streetracer2321 "*You dare defy me, small-sized mortal?*"
"Because unfortunately the world has a thing called 'money' and budgets are often limited."
This comment is genius.
As someone who worked as an electrical inspector, I have found the "non-working" foremans to be some of the best. Yes they aren't pulling wire and making spices but they make the job run so much smoother by having better schedules, identifying the materials needed, submitting RFIs before they get to the work, keeping his guys working, etc.
The planning required to keep people busy in sectors like these is a job on its own, and often a very skilled one at that.
You a con Ed guy in nyc ?
I have seen both sides of non working foremen. However, in my trade ( electrician) the split was about even, and in the last company I worked for, our non working foremen had the worst jobsites. The best foreman I worked with (see the difference here?) knew how to balance his just supervising with his actually pitcing in. His jobs ALWAYS ran smoother and within both time and materials budget. And his crews were the most productive AND happiest.
I'm a State inspector. I totally understand how it looks like I'm just standing around or sitting in my truck. I think you did a great job describing our work. We are quality assurance for the state. Paying a worker a small salary to insure the state doesn't have to pay millions of dollars to Re-do something messed up. Pays for itself rather quickly.
thanks for all the videos!
You sound a little guilty! 🤣😳
@@justinhamrick1099 I was just about to say that🤣🤣 government workers not working not surprised
The inspector doesn't look like a worker though. Those people aren't held to the same standard of "why aren't you working" because you aren't expected to have a shovel in your hand.
@@jasondashney but I do wear a hard hat and high visibility vest. So driving past, it's not always easy to see if I'm holding a shovel or not😅
Also keeps people alive a bit. No fall down. No get hurt.
About survival bias and ancient concrete:
Just take a look at those city gates that had traffic running through them when cars became numerous. Black, corroded, and in many cases they collapsed (or had to be torn down because they degraded too much). Or what happened to bridges as car traffic increased, those old bridges often have very low speeds and low vehicle masses allowed, because they can't take the stress.
The ancient Romans also did not have corrosive exhaust plumes, massive Industrialisation burning Coal and Oil and therefore Acid Rains.
@@kleinerprinz99 Very good point.
Well the Colosseum didn't have to forcefully fit many times the people than it was designed for and it was only used during events, so of course it survived and those pillars shown carry nothing on top of them so...
There is something to be said though for roman concrete, specifically the aquatic concrete they used in their sea ports. I forget the full chemistry but where normal concrete degrades in salt water through chemical reactions with salt the concrete the Romans used had volcanic ash that when exposed to sea water reduced some of it into aluminum oxide basically making a passivation layer on the concrete and drastically reducing corrosion. That doesn't make it stronger but it is how it survived until now. The same technique can certainly be applied to modern concrete allowing a more chemically stable structure than not. As someone who lives in NY where salt is regularly applied to the roads this would be exceedingly beneficial.
? what are your on abou,t if you keep the the really big suspension bridges out on the grounds they didnt have the materials needed, the same reason, we don't have space elevator's at the moment
neally all stone bridges, more so the arched ones, will almost anything with on limit, the same can'nt be said the the new steal or concrete one, the do have great strength, but a well made stone Bridge, will beat any new bridges of the same size, in all ways, the big ones not Max weight, and almost on maintenance, needed , and the ones needing maintenance, is mainly because there old some times very old, as to more moden bridges, needing routine maintenance checked every year or so, when was the last time a stone bridge fell down, stone bridges have a lot in common with tunnels, more so the old ones,
Many, many years ago during a very cold spell of weather, I was the 'safety guy' for two colleagues pressure washing the inside of military fuel bunkers. They were boiling hot, but for me it was the closest I have come to hypothermia, literally just standing still and keeping an eye on them. I had to force myself to start doing short sprints above ground to keep myself warm, and alive.
In the years since, I have become cynical, thank you Grady for this video, it's seriously reminded me that people are just trying to do their job and the complexities and logistics of building, improving and repairing infrastructure is not as black and white to the outside viewer. I do enjoy your insights, but this one sticks out that little bit more.
My thanks to the workers shedding blood, sweat and tears so we can live and exist in our modern world.
This tale reminds me of the guys that have to clean the interior of aircraft wing fuel tanks. Man does my heart go out to them. Mike Rowe would be proud.
When it was -38c on the pipeline, a common trick we used was to wrap our hands around the exhaust pipe of the heavy equipment that was just idling.
It saved my fingers from falling off, many, MANY times.
So who was keeping an eye on them while you went for a jog upstairs? Nobody?
@@phileeepaye1641 The fuel bunkers were dome shaped, I'd trot down then back up, took all of 30 seconds, and to be fair, I hadn't been trained on what to do if something went wrong anyway! It was the lowest paid job I've ever had.
@@Billybobble1 so it was just a waste of money for tax purposes then...
Oh grady! I'm a superintendent and just took off two weeks stress leave because of clients/architects/engineers constantly complaining about theses very issues.
Thanks for grounding me and explaining it's not just my misgivings and lack of caring that cause problems.
stress leave?
@@ShadowZero27 Using your vacation time so you don't just quit on the spot.
Stress leave.
All the best mate, gets to all of us sometimes! Keep well and keep your head up. Sometimes it is just time for a change and other times it's time to get through it - just listen to yourself
His name is Grady
@@peterw1534 I suspect autocorrect.
I live in Magdeburg, Germany, just 3 minutes from a large new bridge & road construction site (the Ersatzneubau Strombrückenzug) and seeing the slow progress every day has been really fascinating. It seems like sometimes nothing will happen for weeks and then, over night, a huge new part of the bride will be suddenly be completed. It really put the amount of invisible work in perspective for me. You need to have a lot of other things done before you can just plop a new 50 000kg(!) piece of steel on the end of your bridge without it collapsing.
Comicly, to some English speaking people it will look like you are specifying 50 kg to 5 significant figures not 50 tonnes. ("." is used as the decimal marker not a seperator for triplets. Some people still use "," as a seperator but best practice in sensible English speaking countries for decades has been to seperate triplets by spaces, probably to avoid confusion with countries that use "," as the decimal marker.)
@@igrim4777 most of us understand that the decimal has the same use as a comma. Born and raised in America and I understand the metric system way better than I do the imperial system.
Your right. I work in a factory that is currently expanding a building and when you watch the construction crew it looks like nothing is happening, but then you look at the timelapse of the past few days and you see how much actually got done.
Working outside of course makes everything even harder. If concrete is involved, you have to plan possibly weeks in advance for when you will need the concrete on-site because it has to be made remotely and brought in on trucks. It also can't sit around in the trucks or it will start to cure. They can't pour the concrete if there is any chance of rain and the only way to know that is to have a solid window of time to make it all happen. They can also be offsite making the steel frames or working at a different site. The bridge site could be waiting on some material that has a long lead time. There are also unforeseen questions that pop up on nearly every construction site and the engineers have to be consulted to answer the new questions and possibly draw up and engineer new plans to answer those questions.
@@Quantum- I have to know both as a machinist, my employer makes parts in both metric and imperial.
As someone with a background in both construction (residential and commercial plumbing) and IT, I always appreciate the balanced view and information you bring to your subject matter.
The internet is a series of tubes. it's not a big truck.
ok
How was your transition to IT? Do you find it boring at times?
@@OldSchool9690
We have been using tech both on jobs it's and in the office for decades. We had digitizers and scanners in the late 80's. Many of us went back and forth between which tool I used. The best of us can draw faster by hand then the best cad operator. But digital is quicker to make changes or jump up in elevation or over to another typical structure.
But if I may, there is no transition. Digital is just another tool in my box. The building is the finished product. Not the drawings.
@@OldSchool9690 I actually started in IT. I went to construction after Dell stopped hiring in the US, outsourced everything, then finally sold the portion of their company that I worked for without telling anybody until after the deal was done.
I decided to get something that couldn't be outsourced like that, and got in to plumbing. Did new construction, first residential, then spent some time in commercial. I'm back in IT now and yes, it can be immensely boring at times, lol. But it's a mixed bag, and some areas are busy all the time, just like building a house.
I've got a about 3 years of experience across various construction trades
The only time Ive ever actually had any time to stand around and do nothing was when my supervisor told me to "wait here for the forklift with the windows to bring the materials over" and then fell asleep on a pallet of cement bags while waiting for the fork lift. Woke up 2 hours later and no fork lift had arrived
I worked landscaping for 6 years, and there’s a lot of “standing around,” where you’re spotting for machines, working on layout, and catching your breath
Yeah a lot of "work smarter not harder" is taking a bit of time to think it out, lay it out, THEN start working.
I worked a few summers at construction sites, and the truth is that there is a lot of inefficiency that arises just from the workers doing their best to figure out what to do. Usually the architect's plans have some minor flaws that cause major delays and idle time for the construction crew, and the on-site engineers often have to make decisions based on incomplete information and without a lot of experience in all the various jobs that need to be done. Despite having an image of purely physical labor, a surprisingly large portion of time and effort goes to just thinking.
At least Someone has been a job site 💯💯
@J D To be clear, it is not a criticism of anyone, just an observation of the construction process. It's the reason why construction has not been automated yet: building is a difficult problem. If you think what I say is incorrect, you should address it on a factual basis, rather than try to belittle me as a person.
In a profession where you are not allowed to make changes or modify anything without the approval of an engineer causes a job of the simplest nature to come to a standstill.
You have a fair take, though an incomplete one.
Sometimes those 'errors' on the prints aren't an error at all, and contractors waste time by trying to sell the owner and his field engineering reps on a 'better' solution that may save the contractor time or effort, but has long-term ramifications on maintainability or operation that were taken into consideration by the original designer. Or there's a note or alternate installation detail that requires actually reading the entire package, not just glancing at the one plan view. Some may even anticipate billing on the back end by bringing up additional costs due to change-orders that they actually initiated 'to save time', or be using this apparent confusion over the prints to cover for the fact that they have a delay because they've overcommitted their labour force elsewhere, or messed up and didn't order enough material or tools.
There's quite a bit of back and forth behind the scenes going on, especially with megaprojects, that don't neccessarily trickle all the way down to guys working in the field at a summer position, and the guys that did the prints are often not in the room as they're being thrown under the bus.
@@russellkeeling4387 Long line of major building and industrial accidents to demonstrate what happens when you *don't* go back to the engineer before making changes, even seemingly inconsequential material substitutions or other changes. Best when both sides are working together from the start and throughout, but oftentimes the owner's pinching pennies trying to compartmentalize. Penny-wise, pound-foolish.
I feel like with the Roman roads argument it's also important to recognize what they are designed for and capable of. Modern roads may have potholes, but those cobblestone roads basically ARE potholes. They are fine for horses and carts and such, but try to take your Audi on one at 70 mph and you'll have a very bad day.
Yeah plus its hard to stress just how much wear and tear roads get. A loaded semi truck weights hundreds of times as much as a horse drawn cart and it goes 10x the speed. I've seen roads that have noticeable ruts worn in them within 10-20 years which can take centuries to show up on a cobblestone road.
@@arthas640 The places that do still have cobbled roads have to maintain them fairly regularly, it's rare that the stones get worn down but most often they'll just fall out or get loose. Cobbled roads also rarely stay very flat or straight even if they're built that way because the stones can all individually move and they will creating a fairly uneven road over time. Lots of places just opt to seal the stones in with asphalt for that reason because it helps protect them against erosion and water damage. My city has a downtown area that's cobbled and it works because it's pretty much exclusive to bikes and pedestrians but they definitely do have to maintain it roughly as often as the normal roads.
@@hedgehog3180 The Roman cobblestone roads are a lot more solid than most other examples in various civilizations, but even they will succumb to this...
Though, they could theoretically have just put concrete over them and been relatively fine. That said, not sure how well the methods would translate over to say, someplace with a lot of clay in the soil, like Mississippi, or some place of greater cold, like Montana
yeah not only that, let 80000 pound 18 wheelers travel on that cobble stone 24 hours a day through a canadian winter and you will have nothing left but pebbles haha. Anyone comparing cobblestone roads to our modern highways must be 44high on something haha.
Read CLAUDIUS THE GOD, specifically the account of construction of the port at Ostia.
I sometimes work as a biological monitor on construction sites, though I would probably mistaken as a typical crew member "standing around." There are similar monitors for archaeology and such (when required). We certainly aren't trained for any construction work, but we're there to check areas beforehard and make sure the operators don't make any costly legal mistakes.
9:50 few people realize just how stressful the job of an estimator is since if we screw up and under bid work then the company will lose money and may have to downsize, but if we guess too high it means we lose jobs, waste the time it took to bid the job (which can be days or weeks of time) and we start to run out of work which can mean downsizing as well. Your boss may walk in and say work slowed too much and now they're firing workers because you didnt do your job well enough or you may get fired too. At the same time its a very detail orientated and complicated job, I worked on a rather small to medium sized project once that had a book of specs we had to follow that was over 1000 pages and there was a single half of a sentence that said "electrical trenches will have a 3 inch bedding of pea gravel" and that wasnt mentioned in the electrical section or the plans so it was super easy to miss but increased the electrical portion of the project by over 25% which when you only have a 5% profit margin and everyone you're competing against will have their bids all come in at the same 5-10% range is a big deal. Extra stressful since suppliers and sub contractors on government projects all send in their bids just before the dead line and if you dont get your bid turned in at or before the deadline (even down to the minute) you can get disqualified so a delayed email may end up causing tons of work to be for nothing, I once had a job i spent around 3-4 days working on get disqualified because my Microsoft Outlook froze.
You're constantly under the gun to get things done quickly, efficiently, and with little to no margin for error. There arent many jobs quite like it since your job and your coworkers jobs depend on your ability to do things as close to perfect as possible and depending on the size of your company you might be entirely on your own with little oversight and little help. To make things worse if a project comes in over budget or takes longer than anticipated its pretty common for guys in the field to blame the estimator for under bidding the project even if it's due to the people in the field taking too long or working too slow, and even "acts of God" types of unforeseeable problems can end up getting blamed on you. I've had a few different positions in the construction industry: secretary, apprentice, journeyman, project manager, administrator, delivery driver/supply yard worker, and laborer, but estimating was the most stressful by far.
I'm sorry but deadlines don't mean "submit it exactly at this time."
If you lost a job because Outlook froze, that's poor planning on your part. That's a ridiculous excuse for waiting until the last minute to do something.
I get that things take time and everyone is working hard but if something as simple as a computer program freezing is preventing you from getting a job, that would make me seriously question everything that went into planning that job.
Also, Outlook Web Access is a thing.
No king rules forever, my son.
All you do is think and press buttons, if you fail at that then yes the boots will blame you
Nothing quite like waiting on material quotes to come in while you are trying to meet a deadline for submitting the estimate, not getting them in time and having to try and figure the cost of some custom skylight or something based of previous quotes so that you can include it in your bid. I enjoy estimating but its a lot of pressure to be the one guy keeping working flowing in.
@@notsure1232 is that sarcasm or you just myopic?
As someone who does surveying, I do feel more lazy in the office than on the field
I've spent a lot of time playing on my phone in the truck because the contractor would rather have a full time crew on site than deal with the scheduling hassle of just having the surveyor come out when they need him.
My wife once said her career goals were "Stick holder. You know, when you've got the two people doing measuring? I wanna hold the stick." XD
omg your right i did not nodise that i felt more lazy in there doring lunsh thin out on the field
I can confirm! Day moves slower inside too haha
As a financial analyst for high rise office buildings, I can tell you that there’s no room for laziness in my field. It either works or it doesn’t, nothing in between.
After serving in the US Army in an engineering battalion as a driver, I never had to wonder why it looked like construction crews were just standing around. I spent more than enough time to know that sometimes I am going to have to wait a crew or piece of equipment to finish before I can continue or start my job with the equipment I am operating.
Trust in Jesus Christ
Having worked in the Arctic, I have seen how important alternatives to bedrock foundations are. Different styles of floating foundations helped to prevent heat from the building to be transmitted into the permafrost below allowing the building above to remain stable. I have seen buildings that were not constructed with such care and they had a bad habit of settling into the ground as the soil beneath them melted.
Sounds expensive
Cicero actually wrote about one of his apartment buildings developing worrying cracks. Juvenal describes being struck in the head by roof tiles.
Apartment buildings in Rome could reach four stories, and collapse was a far more regular occurrence than for modern buildings.
not if you're in Mascot NSW.
Just look at the stories of structure collapse from even the most minor earthquakes at the time compared to how modern, well-engineered structures handle a pretty decent quake, plus how much smaller most of those structures were while having a higher failure rate. Ancient Rome was certainly at the forefront of their times in terms of engineering, but nowhere near where we are now.
@@Stormynormy42 buildings still collapse like that, in places without enforced building codes. This week in Afghanistan, for example, an earthquake knocked down many buildings. I’m sure American buildings would be falling over all the time, if we citizens didn’t demand that the government establish and enforce building codes.
@@gerardlabelle9626 I didn't say they didn't. My point was that with modern technology, techniques, materials, equipment, etc., we have the ability to build large structures that can take pretty strong quakes, including ones that would have taken out most structures of the time. I didn't say every structure currently on earth is built to these standards.
ok
As an example of this from software development, my employer observed that most things went well during the pandemic with everyone working from home, except one thing: inventions. Those casual conversations in the hallway or at the water cooler were a large part of where the real innovation was taking place. Sure, we might spend 38 hours a week at the computer, but the other 2 hours of chatting is where a lot of the creativity came from.
Makes a lot of sense.
My employers want us to not be 100% at home because company cohesion is falling apart ever since the home office started. Not completely, but enough to be noticeable. Us chatting and us overhearing other people talking about their problems at their job is something which is lacking if people are in home office. Also if someone is in a skype/teams meeting to talk about something with their coworker then they are 100% occupied. If they are at the office then you can just go to them and interrupt for a second if necessary.
Being focused on your job alone might seem better and more efficient but it isn't in the long run. Unless the job doesn't require team work and innovation.
True, but also over-stated, it's not that all innovation only happens there and not at all at home. Having people that are happy where they are (be it in the office or at home) ends up with the best workforce.
@@philippbrogli779 My husband's former employer would pay you if your brilliant idea came up while you were in the shower, or other private time places. Lots of creative ideas come from there. Also, I wanted to get paid for being the "cardboard programmer" when my husband really got stuck and had to tell me everything he was doing. It would always unstick him, but I never got any credit. LOL
@@cellgrrl A forward thinking employer there, cellgrrl. I worked at a place for 26 years where they ran a scheme whereby any idea taken up was rewarded with 10% of the savings for the first year. Even some that were not taken up were rewarded with a one off payment if management thought they were good.
i just call up my friends and coworkers to chat anyway, it works out. time to learn to use teams/slack i guess?
As an electrician, I'm really glad to see this video. I have experience working on big and small construction sites over two decades. I've also worked in an office and around offices. In my experience, much more productivity gets done on a job site than any office I've ever been in and around. Nobody is standing around unless something has gone wrong, we are having a safety meeting, or it's break/lunch time. On the other hand, sitting at a desk, sending emails and grabbing coffee can be your job, but do you work all of those 8 hours? No stopping to watch TH-cam for a while? Looking at your phone? Killing time while you wait for an answer from your boss? I'd say more actual hours of productivity happen in a big construction site per day than most offices.
No U-toob, but phones have become a useful tool. From calculation apps to texting a detail of the prints. I let the crew know what is, and what isn’t acceptable. Some know it will be a distraction, so they just leave it in their car.
I did 30+ downlights in three yesterday. My neck and arms needed a rest. My thumb is the worst. I can’t keep that pace up all day on one task.
I’ve also worked in offices and the mental tiredness is also an issue. Funny enough, working on a spreadsheet hurt my neck too but the time flew compared to downlights.
I prefer spreadsheets to downlights.
I've worked both, and can agree with this observation completely.
What kind of "office" were you at? It must have been some kind of union design firm. You clearly have no idea what it's like to work as an architect or engineer at any of the companies I've worked for. If you flake off or screw around at your desk it doesn't take long to catch up with you and get you canned. We also get to put in countless hours of unpaid overtime when the inevitable random deadline convergence occurs. How much free overtime do you put in?
Not all labor is physical. Per hour, it may feel like more is happening on the site because it's the easiest progress to observe, but remember, every single project you've ever done was first drafted by someone in an office. Your work is made possible because there is someone sitting at a desk and sending emails. Also, if workers in the field are allowed to stand around and grab a drink to take a break from the physical labor, then office workers are allowed to grab a coffee and walk around to take a break from the mental labor. :)
There’s a reason our state workers seem to “stand around” too. A friend of mine that works for Dept of Transportation said they get assignments for each job daily. And they’re not allowed to get done fast and start on tomorrow’s job. So, if they have 5 hours of road repair and 8 hours to do it, they’re gonna take an extra break or 2 (or 3). Whatever their next job is for tomorrow (more road repair, mowing, guardrail replacement) will have to wait until tomorrow.
As a bridge inspector I appreciate this video! I will say it does feel odd standing around watching other people work but inspectors play a vital role in ensuring the final product is built to standards and isn't a hazard to the public. I'm also glad you addressed the myth about Roman concrete and structures, an ancient Romans head would spin if they saw a concrete beam with pre-stressed strands, quite ordinary in today's construction of bridges!
Do you inspect the welds or just everything in general?
@@tylerjacobson5840 everything in general through the construction of a bridge. Earthworks, deep foundations, formwork for concrete structures, concrete itself, reinforcing steel, beams, post-tensioning strands, conduit ect...
And none of it will last as long as the Roman’s due to rebar.
@@evilsimeon And that's perfectly fine. Unless you'd *prefer* to live in a Roman marble structure without modern heating, plumbing, or air conditioning?
@@evilsimeon How many Roman bridges carried heavy vehicle traffic?
As an engineer, I can tell you we always try to cover our bases when it comes to contractor's cutting corners. First, is with the specs. If you are lead or CA engineer on a project, you have to know the specs backwards, forwards, and inside-out before you go inspect a site. Then it becomes obvious if the contractor has decided to ignore reading the specs. And once you spot that first item that doesn't match the specs, it's a red flag to begin looking at everything that much closer. Next is with submittal review. Division 01 specs always include a section on submittals. Every trade is supposed to submit every product used in construction and sometimes shop drawings to sow the intended installation. If you go through your list of submittals and you see some products missing that you know are part of the project, it's pretty obvious they haven't fulfilled the requirement and you should note that on a site visit report if you see that product anywhere on site. And if someone is brining discrepancies up in a meeting, especially in front of an owner, don't let the contractor BS their way out of it. As the engineer, we are the experts on what we design. So, if a supervisor starts in "well, we've done it this way on lots of projects and never had an issue" respond with, "but this is how you were required to do it on this project. It doesn't matter if it worked elsewhere, what matters is you agreed to do it according to these drawings and these specifications."
Thanks Grady! That's an excellent overview of an industry that all of us see from the outside, but a relatively small percentage know the inside story.
I must say that since I've been subscribed to your channel, I look at things from bridges to roads to cranes to power lines with much greater interest now!
I pre-ordered your forthcoming book on Amazon, and can't wait for it to arrive!
Thanks!
Have to pay for a heart 🤣😂😂😂 sell out
I'm on the ground 80% of the time as a grade checker/setter but that other 20% I'm in machines and after operating anything from a vibratory roller to an excavator for 8-10 hours a day is strenuous! Thank you Grady for this video. You do a lot to give respect to all aspects of the job, from laborers to engineers and it's awesome!
As an estimator for power & utility company, in my experience being awarded a project which was bid is a great feeling for a fraction of a second followed by panic wondering what I missed lol
Have to imaging the worse one is seeing you missed being lowest bid on nearly a 7 figure job by a couple thousand dollars. Seen that one happen as the engineer a few times. Same where someone lost a bid due to a mistake in bid schedule (thinking it was lump sum instead of each for a line item which gets corrected to double the value of that line, and the bid is lost due to this error)
Hah! There is an old saying, something like: after the bid opening, both the low and high bidders go back to the office to see what they screwed up
@@jdraven0890 haha! It’s funny cuz it’s true!!
@@e_eyster I have also seen LS bids mistaken for unit pricing and vice versa.
I too have participated in very close 7 figure bids like you mentioned, where $3,000 or essentially peanuts separate low bid & #2, it’s a very different feeling when #2 is nowhere near, or even double #1 which is more the norm and sends everyone “back to the drawing board” lol
It’s a tough job but can be very rewarding and/or satisfying work!
@@shawna.4601 Yeah its odd watching the winning bid for large area of disturbance come down to someone pricing silt fencing at $0.10/LF less. As an engineer the big fears are when you get a lot of bids and either "win" the bid with your estimate, or everyone comes in 20% under your estimate because it means something was wrong somewhere.
You hit the nail on the head when you said there's a lot of "hurry up and wait" in construction lol. Ya your an engineer but unlike some you seem to have a pretty good understanding of the production side of the business!
In the view of a subcontractor, the bad engineers are the ones who don't have a reasonable understanding of what hoops the laborers have to jump through to meet whatever specifications they establish.
Keep up the great work!
As a roadway and bridge construction inspector, I found this video to be a great explanation to the layman, of what happens with a construction project. This is a great general overview, and will be what I point those interested to, when asked about what I do at work. I never have felt that I could quite adequately explain the complexity of all that is happening simultaneously, that requires monitoring. Great work on this
Lol, my father was a master carpenter and a commercial contractor. Have been around countless construction projects, beginning with the BP building in Cleveland Oh back in the 80’s. Regardless if one thing is true about most construction projects is that most if not all projects could be completed for about half their actual cost. As a majority of the costs are due to lack of planning by those directing the projects.
i agree,,,,your govt dollars are wasteful maximus...the bigger the govt,the worse..local little towns are more likely to get work done closer to the price of what I would pay as a consumer..Federal projects retorn value to the taxpayer at 18% !!!! This is one reason small govt is better,In the meantime,regulations that have a one-size-fits -all solution to a problem is almost always wasteful....
Once I learned about the concept of "inherent vice" from an acquaintance who worked as a conservator in an art museum, the concept of planned obsolecence made sense. Knowing the safe lifespan of a material lets you plan for when you need to replace it.
Knowing that isn't always valuable, though.
Unlike in long-term large scale projects such as infrastructure om which people rely pretty much 24/7, personal electronic devices or household utilities aren't used on a schedule so tight that you couldn't just replace them whenever that becomes necessary.
@@xCorvus7x While true, I think it is safe to know /when/ a structure might start failing. Not necessarily planning the time of failure. Having knowledge of "Until when should have this structure open to the public before we renovate or replace it?", as well as regular inspections are important for public safety.
@@NoThrottle Yeah, but that's not planned obsolescence anymore; rather an application of studying the security and durability of products which companies (to my knowledge at least) haven't even thought of.
It'd be nice if they did share this knowledge of theirs with the public but they don't seem to care.
Worked as an electrician's helper for a fiberglass plant rebuild for PPG. 12 hour days, 6&7 days per week. Complicated coordination between the trades had me standing around a lot. I hated standing around!
Absolutely true. Just because you see workers standing around does not mean they are happy about it. I bet if you asked them, they'd be PO'd that they must wait on someone else so they can complete their work. Specialization into trades causes some of that, it can't be helped to an extent.
Great video - the first myth you dealt with was particularly eye-opening and reminded me of a an old study (that has eluded me finding it again) that concluded that at best, humans work at 70% efficiency and if try for more than that on a sustained basis you get burnout.
I prefer to think of it that "humans are capable of boosting to 140% of their steady state capacity for short times, but will require additional cool down and maintenance as a result."
“Construction workers might see you just sitting around in the office”
*me sitting around in the office watching this video instead of working*
Biggest threat to lifespan is skimping on maintenance
Ive been watching your channel for a long time now and just wanted to take the opportunity to say how great your writing and delivery are, on top of the excellent editing. Tons of information, delivered in a way any layman can understand but not pandering, while being entertaining at the same time.
I have been a civil engineer for 40 years, both state and private. One time we were chip sealing a road shoulder and the asphalt delivery truck was very late. We had 20+ dump trucks, a distributor, and a child spreader sitting on the side of a very busy 4 lane highway (70 + mph). I can imagine what the drivers thought. It happened 30+ years ago.
Another thought, it should be lowest qualified bidder. Most agencies pre-qualify contractors and they can only bid on project types that they are qualified for.
Great site, enjoy watching you explain processes I have experience in. I also brought your book and I'm looking forward to reading it
Do contractors post surety/performance bonds on projects in your locale?
Excuse me?! A child spreader?!
I'm a materials inspector for an engineering company I do a lot of density tests for foundations on houses as well as commercial buildings and I'm so glad you hit on the bedrock myth most buildings out here are built on unsuitable building material so they have deep excavations filled with imported materials so they don't settle or sink
One of the things I heard on site was, "Just because you don't understand what I'm doing, doesn't mean I'm not doing anything."
The lowest bid model makes an incentive for bidding contractors to rearrange their budgets away from 'non-essential' work. Unfortunately the first thing to get cut is lab testing! Because construction projects are sequential, a failing test (eg. soil compaction) halts work for everyone on site. Now there is pressure on the testing lab to 'pass' unsuitable material. The outcome: a road designed to last 20+ years starts falling apart within 2-3 years!
Or, like the Saskatchewan, Canada bridge that made the rounds in the news, it starts falling apart later in the day it was opened.
If they had a bid. Some contracts are no bid aka corrupt as hell.
Not sure where this happens. Been managing state highway projects since the 90s. All records are open to the public. So put in an OPRA request if you want to see the real results.
You don’t just cut testing out of a budget if it is required in the contract. For public roads the agency requires certain testing in the contract. The contractor does the quality control and the agency does the quality assurance to verify the contractors results. If the results do not match up, a 3rd party does a test.
This is why testing and acceptance is performed by the project owner (usually the state or the city) rather than by the contractor building the project.
I often see labourers standing around at construction sites, and have been in similar situations where you can't do much of anyting until something else has been completed. Then of course for some thing it's having someone come by and look to see if what you did was done correctly. A lot less expensive to "waste" an hour of time then to have to redo 6 hours of work.
Plus you have inspectors who’s job it is to stand there and watch the workers to make sure everything is being done correctly. Usually the foreman of the crew is doing the same on their end
Most state projects are paid by completed item. So one worker or 100 workers is indifferent to how the contractor is paid by the owner. Same for work in your house. You pay for a new roof; does it matter if there are 5 or 50 folks installing it?
@@oscarwinner2034 that’s correct. Plus most state projects are won by lowest bid. So in the end it’s the contractors money being spent if they aren’t performing the work efficiently. You might think the foreman is just watching his laborers but actually he’s coordinating everything between his laborers and the inspector as well as directing his laborers to make sure they’re doing things correctly. As well as making sure the equipment is running smoothly and any issues are coordinated and taken care of. Inspectors usually have 1 or 2 people on site depending on how intensive the item work is. Basically, people just stereotype government workers as being slow and lazy when in actuality they don’t understand the regulations and what it takes to get the work done
@@oscarwinner2034 yes it would matter if 50 people were installing it. The more people the more expensive the job will be... Simple economics
@@xephael3485 more expensive for the contractor. But the owner only pays the contractor the as bid price for the completed item; not the labor costs and all.
In my experience in construction, alot of the time standing around is caused by another trade needing to do something in the same area, and when another trade gets in the way of them meeting their deadline they get mad, so if you see some workers faffing about outside, i'd reckon theres a 30% chance they're just as annoyed as you.
Just remembering that time at the annual extended family picnic here in Australia talking about the nearby weir and my cousin and I are clearly nerding out on hydraulic engineering and realise that we both binge your videos all the time haha.
Loved this one, can't wait to see this series continue if possible
The thing I always heard was that "anyone can build a bridge that doesn't fall down, but it takes an engineer to build a bridge that just barely doesn't fall down"
Or if you’re a bridge builder and haven’t had one fail, then you’ve overbuilt them (was an old saying)
Short sighted. Make it cheap mentality. Race to the bottom.
Yep. No point in building a bridge that can hold 200t of the max gross weight that will go over it is 20t
@@nathanflett6427 Not in this case. If the bridge can do what you need, for as long as you need, at a cost of $100M, then it’s a waste to spend $150M to do the exact same job. Engineers are supposed to design/build to a specification with a reasonable margin of error (say, 5-10% or less).
I hate this quote. It might be appropriate to spaceship design where every gram matters, but things designed to "just barely stand up" don't stand up to abuse or neglect when left out in the elements for 100 years. What engineers *_can_* do is build a stronger bridge using the same amount of material... because they understand what each piece actually does instead of just throwing stuff together haphazardly.
🧠Get ahead in your career or studies with Brilliant: brilliant.org/PracticalEngineering
📖Did you know I wrote a book?! It comes out in November. You can preorder now for early access and other cool stuff: practical.engineering/book
But why do I see tons of contruction(not only around these parts but engineering documentaries, videos etc..)
put already RUSTY rebar into a new concrete structures shortening the life of it...
There was an advantage to th romans using the volcanic addative to concrete. the rest of the points are right.
speaking of steel rebar, I've seen new brands of rebar made of reinforced fiberglass. I'd like to know your thoughts on the pros and cons of these new types of rebar and possibly if they have a chance to replace steel
Yet another excellently put together production, with a nuance list.👌🏽👍🏼
This is necessary that instead of stigmatising something... we first at-least attempt to grasp the ethos, reasoning behind it (the choices, compulsions, restrictions, flexibility.. or its lack thereof).
.
Thanks again Grady ji🤍💙 wikipedia.org/wiki/-ji
@@agatasoda Rusty rebar doesn't shorten its life. Without oxygen the rust doesn't proceed. If exposed to oxygen (and it always is) a little head start makes no difference. And efforts to coat it (e.g. epoxy or plastic) make the situation worse. And these days, real concrete construction depends on "prestress"...attempting to always have it in compression...its only state of strength.
My brother worked construction for a year and a half when the family moved westward. He was a flagger/sign man. As a flagger, you go with a partner so that way you can swap out after x amount of time. As a sign man, you might also be assigned a partner, or be sent by yourself depending on the scale of the job, set up your sign, then sit there for 4-14 hours depending on how long the job site needs your sign. He had some days he'd just watch TH-cam on his phone in the truck from sun up to sun down, and yes you aren't allowed to do anything else on the site because your job is to make sure the blinky arrow sign works, and that's it.
I drove by a construction site and there was this young girl doing the same thing you described and she looked bored as hell kinda felt bad for her
The blinky arrow sign 😁
FYI John Glenn's Friendship 7 mission encountered several "issues", including a potentially fatal equipment failure that caused NASA to cut the flight short. Practically all the early space missions had multiple problems. They just worked through them.
I have a college degree in Construction Management, and I found it heartwarming and inspirational you were kind enough to include and represent the CM profession on an equal footing with Engineering. I have found absolutely, bar none the most difficult thing in my career is to work in an unbalanced interpersonal environment and deal with financial and design stake holders with entitlement issues. Thank you for your kindness!
From the engineering side, I've often found that CM people are the only ones that truly know their stuff. Engineering has been suffering for about 30 years from not taking adequate time and effort to mentor juniors.
I’ve got a civil engineering degree and construction management degree. Hell yeah buddy
I have learned enough about large scale construction to appreciate that one of the most complicated and stressful jobs on any job site is often that of the general contractor/project manager, the guys who are responsible for the timeline and arranging all the various subs to show up on the right day with the right tools finding waiting on site or bringing with them the right supplies and with the right sense of time management to get their work done and inspected and approved before the NEXT sub shows up to pick up where they left off.
The idea that something like a sports stadium, building, or above ground/subsurface utility project can be planned out TO THE DAY before the project is even bid is something I now perfectly understand but also find completely mind blowing at the same time! Then, if one sub doesn't come through, it screws up the schedule for everyone else and makes people hot under the collar. A simple example, if the guys putting the shingles on your roof get there before the decking has been done, you won't get them back tomorrow. It may take them a week or longer to fit you back in the schedule and they're not gonna be happy about it because it may mean that their crew doesn't get paid that day!
All the respect in the world to construction management, project management, general contractors, and similar professions!
Where I live the problem is less "Workers standing around" and more "No Workers in sight at all"
There are construction sites that stay in place for literal years and only every now and again you can actually see some workers and machines at the site doing something. It can't be that hard to replace some asphalt, so what is going on there?!
Lawsuits, environmental issues, rights of way problems, other utilities performing their jobs, all of these can cause extreme delays.
Also sometimes that waiting is intentional, you will notice that when a road gets paved they let people drive on the gravel for about a week and then put the asphalt down. This is to let the freshly disturbed sediments/dirt settle and compact to prevent settling after the project is finished, depending on the exact project they may take various measures to encurage faster settling or need to just wait longer. (Its no good ro have your skyscraper fall over because the dirt settled after construction)
And of course lots of unexpected problems can crop up and force construction to stop while the design team / client administration solves the problem.
Permits, inspections, bureaucracy, bs. The usual when trying to do anything
@@jasonreed7522 that’s what there sheepsfoot compactors are for. Cars won’t do what those machines can.
Budget. Assuming you are in US, most city have trouble balancing their book.
I have worked in many facets of highway and bridge construction and maintenance for the last 21 years. From materials testing to inspection to traffic control system maintenance and I can tell you that at no time did we have people that just stood around all day. I've had people yell at me for "leaning on a shovel" while I was keeping a very close eye on a conduit full of fiber optics so an MEO excavating for a roadway failure wouldn't take down a massive chunk of communication grid on a Friday afternoon while he dug.
I really appreciate this video (and this channel in general).
I'm in the "biz" so I get all of this. Strangely the main thing to caught my eye in the video was your stock footage of the construction "people" walking across the work site. I realize they are all models and actors but somehow they found proper boots for the guys but the woman model on the right was clearly not in CSA or PPE footwear.
I do too many safety inspections, LOL.
Shot in the last third where they walk towards building? Great observation!
I'm in safety, I saw that one too. Wouldn't let her on my site without proper footwear.
When I was a kid, I made the mistake of spending my first few hours working in a warehouse without steel toes. Smashed and banged my feet on everything. Never did it again
That was the first thing I noticed...right she was in no sock shoes on a contstruction site...der.....
that caught my eye too. however, i thought of it as impractical or inconvenient - i did not think 'construction site safety rules'. i would've been okay if she merely wore sports shoes - one could at least hop around easily in those. im not a construction safety officer or anything construction-related.
Yeah, I noticed that too, I said she's not a "Worker", she is office staff, come to take notes.
7:50 Bridge replacement cost should be definitely considered during the initial design process and that cost should include estimate for the problems caused by the bridge being out of order for the whole replacement period. In practice, this cost is nearly always underestimated which results in bridges not being replaced in time because the bridge being out of order for any time period is considered too big a problem.
Noooooooooo How dare you! Engineers knows best. Rather let it collapse and kill 100 people. (EG morandi bridge in italy). A design never done before, maybe there was a reason nobody did it. Nah don't know , don't care
It is just usually the problem of the next government :)
I currently work in an office, and I can attest that not all of my time is spent doing actual work ( case in point, commenting on this video ). I also worked as an underground utility worker, and can attest that we did not spend all of our time doing work. We had entire days where we were told to "look busy" because shipments were delayed, or the weather was enough that we couldn't work, but we weren't allowed to go home until we were on the job site for a certain amount of hours.
Very good explanations. I too was one of those standing around, usually with a group. Believe me, work was being performed. The key to success is to have a good plan at the outset, work the plan but be receptive to necessary changes, and don't make errors. No one in construction "stands around" for no reason.
Here's a little fun fact:
Tunnels and underpasses can actually float upwards even when it has over a thousand foundation piles underneath this. During the design they have to make sure at the end there will be enough weight within the tunnel or underpass so it wont float upwards because of groundwater
Wow, thanks for the insight
Ha,ha, seen this on small (domestic) foul waste treatment plants installed in "wet" sites. A five cubic meter tank put in a hole and back filled with pea shingle. A year later the ground water has risen and someone comes and pumps out the tank. Result; a five ton upward force. Up comes the tank tearing its connections off as it rises.
There is planned obsolescence, and then there is "planning based on budget and overall long-term operating costs." Both may lead to a shorter engineered lifetime but they are absolutely not the same as suggested here.
Planned obsolescence is a specific term that refers to shortening the lifespan of a product with the specific purpose of increasing profits through repeat customers. The decisions you describe here may be commonly misunderstood as planned obsolescence, but they are easily understood by a willing engineer.
Planned obsolescence, almost by definition, supplies a lower quality experience, more waste, and a higher overall cost to consumer. It takes advantage of lack of insight into durability, limited competition, brand lock-in and/or human nature to accomplish this.
@ 81 & being retired. I need to gain this education? thank you
bye. just asking.
Especially when it's a large public company and you have to keep costs as low as possible. You realise that spending more money on something that isn't really a big selling point is kind of a waste of money, especially when you want people to buy the newer thing when it comes out. I can understand with things like electronics how tech is always changing and even though most people don't use half the features in their stuff, some things need to change in order to keep up with security (as an example), but appliances... Soo irritated with how cheaply many companies make some stuff. $900 for a machine with maybe $250 of stuff in it. No wonder why the company is so massive and wealthy.
Normal engineering is designing a part's thickness to balance cost and durability.
Engineering for planned obsolescence is designing a part's thickness so it breaks just after the warranty period even if it costs more to manufacture it that way.
Modern engineering is adding plausible deniability to the latter.
Can confirm when I've been on a construction site with my current job every time somebody standing around it's not because they're being lazy it's because something else is going on where they literally can't do their part and they're waiting for the other guy to get done and out of their way. It is the most hurry up and weight industry I have ever worked in but it's also the one that's paid me the best.
I work signals/switches on the tracks. And I love when a customer goes, "Yooo, why you guys always just standing around?" Umm....because the train is sitting over the switch. If you get on the train maybe and keep it moving. So will we. Lmao.
"Is your car currently on top of our work site?"
..Yeah
"Would you like it to be permanently attached to our work site?"
..No
"Then we'll wait to pour concrete til you move. Please move."
Yep, working on a live system involves standing around waiting for windows. I was involved in comissioning an upgrade/extension to a commuter line, and between the morning/evening trains, there were two trains that ran midday. Those passengers looked out the window and saw dozens of workers standing around, but they were all waiting for the train to go by so they could get back to work.
@@Lizlodude Good one!
22 year construction laborer here, I've seen thousands of people standing around doing absolutely nothing at a job site over my time.
I really enjoy Civil engineering. I have my own excavation company and have helped design highways and bridges. Hearing these explanations on here always makes me happy because alot of people refuse to understand the miracles of construction.
I'm an information technology engineer retired and I just wanted to drop in and say how much I really like your videos and your knowledge and your attitude and your delivery and what else can I say terrific! You're absolutely one of my favorite channels Grady and I will stay subscribed as long as you've got a channel!
Really good video. I worked in construction during college and experienced first-hand that there are times when you're inbetween tasks on the job that looks exactly like standing around to an on-looker, not to mention taking mandated breaks to stay hydrated and avoid being over-worked.
One thing I'd like to point out about gov't contracts is that there is an exceptionally important term that *always* gets left out: contracts aren't awarded to the lowest bidder, but to the lowest price *technically acceptable*. When a contract is spec'd out for bidding, ballpark estimates of costs are included in the work done by the gov't prior to putting it up for bid, and the winning bid is going to be the one that meets all specifications while offering the lowest price.
As a safety professional with 27 years on the job, the past 15 in geotech I applaud your videos. The behind the scenes work is what most people never see. Trust me, there really is no such thing as a lazy field craft in our business, they would not last on most projects. Appearances are very deceiving, the majority of my 50 to 60 hour week is very busy and stressful, so if you see us “standing around” I invite you to spend a day in our boots.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I've had to explain the standing around thing to people more times than I can count! I've had someone accuse me of being lazy on one flagging assignment. I looked him in the eye and said "I keep people from dying." She stopped at a police officer a few blocks away from the site. A while later, the officer came by to tell me that she had complained about my "attitude" and got angry at him for laughing and telling her that meant that I take my job seriously. And the hurry-up-and-wait thing is the main reason for "standing around"; and annoys the heck out of most construction workers. We don't like standing around unless IT IS the job.
And, regarding the comment from Glenn, it's usually taken out of context. He was equal parts scared, excited, and confident. If he truly doubted the quality of equipment, he had the power, authority, and the gumption to call off a launch. Lowest bidder contracts go bad when person, or people, in charge of taking bids don't look at the details of the bid or the record of the bidder.
I think most tradies would call people standing around on site lazy too.
@@phileeepaye1641 Well, that's the thing. With most of what he describes, they're not actually "just standing around". It just looks like it to outsiders. As a Flagger, I am constantly on my toes with my ears open and my head on a swivel; focused and constantly aware of both traffic and the job site. I am NOT "just standing around" though it can look like it... And feel like it when traffic is low, like on rural back roads where you can go ten minutes or more between cars.
I really enjoyed this video. I love how you "turned the camera around" sort of speak...looking in on office workers throughout the day... what would you see. LOL Hilarious.
As a Mining Engineer this is nice to see. I would love to see more videos related to mining. Mining is a very key part to our lives and we wouldn't be living the way we do without it.
Talks about Roman concrete,
shows the Parthenon in Greece made of stone.
I mean, it doesn't really matter. It's just stock footage that gets the point across, old vs new. But it's kinda funny for a Greek like me.
Great videos! I've learned so much from them!
Oh good, I wasn’t the only person who noted that…
Can't tell you how important that planning stage is before a bid. An old teacher told me about something that happened in a company he was working with - the company left out 3 floors in their planning and set the bid way lower by accident! Lost millions on the project and almost had a lot of people fired.
I am a professor of theoretical physics and really enjoy your channel. Besides your voice and demeanor keeps you interested in your topics. For those who don't know that the pyramids were used as a means to create power. I was introduced to a book called the Pharoh's Pump. The pyramid was a water pump to divert water from higher ground to lower ground (Like the one used where you had two dams). Used for ionizing water which was tuned down to a frequency to produce electricity. Now I love all of your designs (like the one to show how a cooling tower works). Grady this is the ultimate challenge to you and to all of academia. Prove to the unbeliever's the truth about the pyramids and the use of electricity. An engineer such as yourself should be able to use the information for you to build the pump, along the lines as Nicola Tesla's design which also uses the same framework. This is your big opportunity Grady to prove to those less educated on the true purpose of the pyramids. The pump works so can you replicate the feat? This one idea Grady could take you and this idea to a whole new level. The book is called The Pharoh's Pump. -dr.
as a disabled boilermaker I did 15 years keeping a lead recycling smelter running, staying hydrated is the biggest use of time when work is not being done, summer is hot so I would think it's no different in industry being discussed in this video Plus those workers have to deal with the elements minus 20° swinging to 105°, that's brutal
Few people realizew how hard jobs like that can be. I felt terrible for a coworker last year: we had a freak heat wave that caused temperatures 30° above the average for that time of year. He was stuck working in an attic most of the day when it was 100° outside and over 120° in the attic. Another time a coworker was working in a class 4 arc-flash suit (picture a hazmat suit or a bomb disposal suit for an idea of what they look like) in a humid factory that thanks to the machinery was around 90° and near max humidity. I dont know how my roommate does his job though, he works in a factory and may fill multiple roles day to day, and since they have wet materials going into drying/curing ovens on a convayer belt system there's consonantly heat and humid air coming off the machines and the production line. In the summer it can mean 90° and 100% humidity for all of his 12 hour shift but in winter it can mean dealing with a 75-80° interior thats wet and humid until they have to open the giant doors and suddenly freezing cold air gets blown in and you're suddenly soaking wet with sweat and water but also suffering from a near instant 50+ drop in temperature.
The 'breaks' are for several reasons, including to be out of the way until you are needed to do your part of the task, as in specialization.
6:55 The Engineer's Maxim: Good, Fast, Cheap -- pick two.
I'd be interested in hearing more about the alternative system for funding contracts.
And truly, it's all three of these things in some balance. It's more about how you can't get more of one without having to balance it with the other. Want it to last longer or be done faster? It's going to cost more. Want it cheap? You're either going to have to take your time and wait for a good deal or lower your standards.
A 100K sqft single story warehouse with 40' floor to bottom of beams, 20 year roof, including 5K ft of office space, built to code at a certain site, and similar specs and including a certain dollar amount paid for the work----given out to 4 or 5 firms asking them what they can build and how much time would it take. Something like that is one other model, the winner is responsible for design and build. Since the max price is fixed, bidders can think about speed and quality of the build.
Ammonia Refrigeration operator reporting in.
Coincidentally last night, we had a "hurry up and wait" scenario.
I had filed for a Hot Works permit because I needed to remove decommissioned struts and pipe racking. To do this, I needed a grinder. Our work was on the roof at sundown because logistically that was the only time we had an opening. So from approximately 7:30pm until 9:00pm we were working on the dark, on the roof with a grinder creating sparks.
Now the roof membrane could catch fire, so we needed a fire extinguisher, blankets, water access, etc. To do all of this, we needed a Spotter or Attendee who's sole job was to make sure no fires started, or that if one did start it was extinguished.
Then, we needed to perform a Fire Watch for 30 minutes after the work finishes, because of all the heat from cutting a bunch of steel struts off. The Fire Watch lasted from the end of work at 9:00pm for 30 minutes until 9:30pm.
So someone last night was paid for 2 hours to literally stand around and wait, from 7:30pm to 9:30pm... waiting to see if a fire began.
When I worked water distribution, we would often be called out to repair a water break. We would get to the site, do as much prep work as we could(locating the water lines and where the failure actually was) but we could not start digging till the other utilities showed up to mark their lines and that could mean us standing there for an hour or two till they showed and finished.
And importantly, what are you supposed to do in the mean time? It's not like you can just go do another job -- you are needed here the moment you can start and it costs a lot to be moving people and equipment around between jobs.
Sounds like whoever you worked for should have bought some folding chairs to add to your work vehicles. No reason to waste energy standing around and waiting when you could sit and wait instead.
I was on a job in the city, standing around when a group of contractors came through to change some street signs. Whoever did the tender got one person for every required ticket/license, so they had way too many people. They had 2 people to move the cones, a spoter for the boom lift, a boom lift operator and a bloke who did the traffic plan. There was a fair bit of standing around.
If in usa operator spotter traffic plan guy and one for cones would be legally required (in most areas)