1.5 Years of Heavy Construction in 1.5 Hours
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ธ.ค. 2024
- By popular request, we combined the Practical Construction series into a single video. This was originally released in 2023 in a series of 5 episodes as an experiment in long-duration, on-location production. It was a lot of work, but a ton of fun, and I'm really proud of the result. I hope you enjoy it!
Huge thanks to our project partners!
Owner: San Antonio River Authority (@SanAntonioRiver)
Engineer: Utility Engineering Group
General Contractor: MGC Contractors (@mgccontractors3304)
Credits:
Created by Grady Hillhouse
Edited by Wesley Crump
Camera Operator Josh Lorenz
Script Editing by Ralph Crewe
Graphics by Max Moser
Music by Donovan Bullen
Color Correction and Blurring by the Nebula Studios team
Some music from Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.c...
Totally worth re-watching all of this again, since having it all in one shot makes it a lot easier to connect previous details.
I'm pretty sure it's not all one *shot.* Grady did try, but the "Birdman" crew was busy. 😜
@RFC3514 agree, Very good document. I might enjoy watching it again 6 months from now. Depends on my memory?
@@FlesHBoX I enjoy the long form because I can always save and pause the video for viewing later. Short form, you always have the intro and exit added to them.
this long format was a delight to watch from start to end.
one feedback would be to utilize more graphics to explain the plan first and then move onto construction.
Same for me.
You've practically engineered one of the best educational channels on TH-cam
I hope you do more content like this series in the future!
As as annual holiday special would be cool
IIRC they said it didn't get enough views to justify doing more, which is a shame.
What a fantastic documentary! Pure distilled civil engineering, non-stop. The fill _and_ the narrator's voice are hypnotic
I'm hoping enough viewers agree with me and give this a(nother) watch and we can see more of this in future!
If there had been a choice between the 90 minute video and episodes in the first place I would've watched it over the episodes. But I've already seen the episodes, so I probably won't now.
@@PrivateMemo The long format allows full picture that is getting rare nowadays
I enjoyed both the original episodes and this long form video.
I enjoy the long form because I can always save and pause the video for viewing later. Short form, you always have the intro and exit added to them.
He's got 3.97 million subscribers I think he's doing okay
Did I watch every episode of this series as they released? Yes.
Did I rewatch the entire project in a single video anyway? Also yes.
Did i drink vodka? Yea
These videos should be mandatory in schools across the world! I am shocked by how many people have no idea how the most basic systems in their city / society work.
As always, you did a stellar job Grady. Salutations from Romania!
@mimaitm perhaps because they have not been to a university to learn Engineering? Our youth in the US have the opportunity more than I did 40 years ago. I took radio and TV repair VOpp in high-school because there was nothing else to introduce me. My own interest in electronics is what drove me. Today, anyone with an interest in Engineering can certainly test the waters on TH-cam.
You missed the point my friend.
You don't need to be an engineer to know how water flows through a pipe, or what a pump does etc.
I was talking about BASIC sistems, the simple ones.
Watching the suspension on the trucks when they take off each concrete well segment really conveys just how much weight they're handling.
The step-deck trailers in the video can legally haul around 48,000 lbs before needing an overweight permit. Most of the time, the load is between 43,000 and 47,000 lbs. Concrete is like a pour-able rock --- it's ridiculously heavy!
Omg omg omg omg an hour of practical engineering!!!
Goodness, that was really incredible to watch. Thanks for pulling it together and many thanks to the San Antonio River Authority for supporting you for letting it be filmed and made public. I never knew how much went into something like that. Stay safe.
Happy to give this entire series a rewatch in one whole video!
On *hole* video
Agreed 😊
I don't have any construction experience but after watching this video I have applied to several construction companies for a superintendent role
Average KPMG consultant behaviour
Lmao
@30:23 "it almost looks good enough to drink"
You're a sick man Grady.
i think it looks like a milkshake
As someone who worked waste water (summers a long time ago)... no, no it's not. The NC state lab says the discharge from the plant is "clean", but I'm not about to drink it. ('tho we are. the discharge is into a river used by other towns as the input to their water system.)
@@jfbeam the timestamp is for low strength fill, which is concrete not the output of the treatment plant
Thanks! Amazing work. Really enjoyed your high quality presentation. Have to ask for more!
Grady, hi from Calgary, Alberta , Canada. The perfect channel for us construction/civil engineering geeks. Although I work for civil engineering consultant and see work sites every day I still find the channel a must watch. Great series.
Thanks Grady keep up the great videos!
Normally, when I see a video that's over 1.5 hours, it's an automatic skip. But, I gave this one a shot....and, boy howdy, I'm glad I did!! It was so interesting that I got perturbed when a commercial would come on. PLEASE continue to do more just like this one!
One of the more fascinating videos you've posted.
I’ve seen a lot of Grady’s videos and I find them all very interesting and informative. Being a plumber for the last 12 years plus my interest in seeing how things are built and operated makes this video even more captivating. TH-cam auto played this from whatever I watched prior and I saw the run time of 1.5 hrs and thought initially kinda long but my new thoughts after watching it’s over already that felt like 20 mins. Anyways thanks Grady and Grady’s team for all your hard work and effort in making the videos you make especially this one. Thank you San Antonio River Authority, Utility Engineering Group, and MGC for your participation.
This just makes me appreciate construction so much more. I was completely ignorant to how many steps and complex it is…all the considerations. Just amazing
Watching this from the beginning to the end felt so interesting and effortless. This is just amazing content I'd want to watch over and over again
Fantastic! Its great to see all the steps of a large project like this. Great work capturing this!All the hard work that went into presentation, production and editing...Professional
Thanks! Well done.
A super tiny annoying thing is when presenting a group of units is interleaving conversion between systems. For example, “50 kw to pump 800 per minute gallons up to 30 feet”, it is to follow I feel if they’re all narrated in one system at once and then narrating the equivalent values in another system.
Enjoyed the video immensely.
Bedankt
Excellent! Why am I excited about a re-run about sewage processing?!?!
Pumping. Processing is a different thing. :-) (See also: PBS Terra: Where Does the Poop Go? - waste water treatment at McMurdo.)
This has been a great video, coming from a wastewater operator/plant manager of 24 years this is very informative. Choosing Flygt is a win for me. 4 pump stations, and another 9 pumps in my plant, I wouldn’t spec another centrifugal pump.
Thanks
OMG.... I had one of the projects almost like this so I was super excited to watch it all. It's almost like soothing as Grady's voice is so calm... As I was heading this project and it was much more cahotic than this one (and because it was in China), I freaking enjoyed this video from beginning to end :D By the way, that hinges idea for the pumps, is a freaking brilliant idea.
Only difference is that in my project, we had to precommission all pipes when delivered onsite because you could find lots of surprises in the pipes like gloves, safety hats, metal rods, cloth....
You have managed to educate and entertain at the same time. Thank you.
The bag, string, and vaccum trick is a common thing to do when the conduit run is extremely long. We use the string to pull a very strong rope called "mule tape" through the conduit. We then attach the mule tape to the wires being pulled with a series of knots called "half-hitching." The really thick conductors are pulled using a very strong rope which is attached to a pulling machine. Right now, I'm in school and we are currently learning about motor control systems and how to read ladder diagrams.
This was a great video and I hope you make more of these!
Superb work on everyone's part. Really enyoyed this. I was surprised and amazed at just how well all the construction tasks were completed and that everyone got everything done. Well filmed, edited and voiced. All very professional and a lot of hard work. Many thanks for this!
Please please please do more things like this, I had so much fun learning about this!
I’m a woman and I love these videos! I’m fascinated watching complex projects come together, whether it’s seeing the precision of heavy machinery, the problem-solving required in tricky situations, as in the backfill stage, or the transformation of raw materials into something new. These construction videos offer a mix of engineering, creativity, and teamwork in action, making them both educational and highly satisfying to watch.
Cutie pie
I am a car guy, but this civil engineering stuff is so cool, i am mindblown.
This was an awesome series! I hope to see more of these. I'm sure San Antonio likes the advertising and public relations part of these videos!
No sh.. Sherlock!
This reminded me of what content was like when I was a kid watching Discovery and the History Channel. This is awesome. Really appreciate the work that went into a seemingly mundane construction project.
I first watched this in the episodic fashion when in was first uploaded. It was nice to see it again uninterrupted from start to finish.
I look forward to viewing more construction videos like this.
That was absolutely fantastic.
I'm such an Umarell already, but mostdef in 2052 when i turn 72 for sure :D
Many thanks to you and your team for make such a great dicumentry of all processes involved all the way down to the "mundane" or funny (pizza break) around that site.
It is truly hi-tech engineering, planning und careful execution.
Are more of these in the works? This is informative and relaxing alike.
♥
Thanks!
Very, very, very impressive. More of these please. This was rivetting to watch. The awesomeness of all the engineers and tradesmen. The test gauges, the seals. Just the best.
I'm one of those pensioners now - but with a slight difference in that l used to run construction sites even bigger than this one here in the U.K. This job is vastly superior to one of our similar projects - we're catching up - the major new sewer for London is equal but it took about the same time as the Pyramids to complete (if it actually is fully complete!)
Every time it rains heavily here - and this is England I'm talking about - raw sewage flows straight into many of our rivers because it has nowhere else to go. I take my hat off to your planners - doing this job before it was needed.
Remind me of this in 4-5 years so I can let my future children watch it. Kids love wholesome construction videos.
Totally worth ever min & sec of the entire 1:36:34. I soldiered through endless adverts thrown in by TH-cam. Bravo 👏🏾 what a well put together video and narration.
Never noticed that Grady has the perfect last name for school Textbooks books 😂
Also a fitting name for someone in the Civil Engineering field considering how much grading has to be done. It's like having the surname Smith while having a job forging knives or something.
That was awesome! And no doubt a lot of work. I'd love to see more of these documenteries on civil projects ( the construction of a municipal water tower, for example, would be very interesting).
I worked as an engineer on many projects that required industrial construction methods like you've recorded on this project. I think this is an excellent visual documentation of a project from an engineering perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Obrigado!
Dude, thanks for the movie. The lil ones made it all the way thru and loved it. 100s of questions flew .... Some answers were made up, most of them got rectified as the video went thru .
Thanks, Brady
Just finished watching, and have to say this was absolutely fantastic! I love these long format, detailed deep-dive videos, and would happily watch this kind of thing all the time. Practical Engineering has become one of my favorite YT channels 😁
That vacuum trick with the string is absolutely witchcraft. I'm immediately looking around for a conduit to try it on.
Possibly one of the best construction documentaries I've ever seen. The minimal abstractions like drawings and animations were perfect, just enough to clarify what we're looking at, while leaving the practical elements intact. The shoring panels being the prime example.
The automated 'tube' the drive thru bank uses....
I've been watching each tid bit you've put out and good to see a culmination of it all here.
Retired environmental engineer after 40 years in this industry. You did an excellent job explaining how this lift station works and showing the important details. Congratulations to the entire project team. Job well done.
First class video, explanation and coverage of all the construction processes from breaking ground to the final commissioning, that goes into setting up a suburban sewage transfer system. Well done Grady Hillhouse from Western Australia
In water treatment 20 years. Been around many lift stations. This presentation was very well done. 👏👍
Love the mega video. I loved watching the first time.
Quite the video! What a project to get together, Grady!
I imagine that removing the shoring system is heck on the excavator's bearing system with all those hard pulls.
and the shoring plates in this vid pulled way easier than what I've seen in person, it can get pretty violent for lack of a better word.
@@ronaldwilkins6056 dang - I'd be wary if I were an equipment rental company with excavators.
Not gonna lie...I did doze off twice during this. But it was not by any fault by the filming, construction, or presentation. It's amazing to see all of this. It's amazing, just the sheer amount of concrete needed for a project such as this. Some questions:
1. How high does a lift station typically raise the sewage for the next leg of its trip to the processing plant?
2. How far can that sewage travel before it needs to be lifted again for another leg?
3. What is a typical slope in degrees and inches per lateral foot for sewer lines? And does this change depending on location on the globe or geographic/weather conditions?
4. Speaking of weather, what is done differently to keep sewer lines from freezing in very cold zones?
Thank you very much for this; it was super interesting!
Top notch Grady! I enjoyed your presentation. I work for a potable water utility so I have not seen the sewer lift station side. I really enjoyed this.
This was an awesome video that showed great detail and great explanation of each facet of a wastewater project and the role each piece of the project takes in the function of the pump station. I used to be a PM in the heavy civil/wastewater construction industry and have since switched to another industry but I have very fond memories of my experience in that sector. Most people would have never seen this type of work unless they have worked in it and you captured the complexity and process of this work, perfectly. This video made me miss it, thanks for sharing!
Great series!
This documentation deserves the utmost respect. Fabulous work! Thank you very much.
Very cool, I was an apprentice rod buster on a big new build like this 20 years ago in south west Michigan. That shoring system is new to me and impressive. Nothing like repetitive hard work to perfect process. Thanks
This was one of the best videos I’ve seen in a very long time.
Thank you for your tireless work and all those sandwiches you endured in making this video.
Looking forward to more of your excellent made videos that are always accurate and on point.
Take care and Happy New year!
The theme of the music combined with the time lapse reminds me of playing SimCity.
Thanks Grady. Excellent video- as always. You have the best engineering videos out there and you teach without making us knuckleheads feel ignorant. That's the icing on the cake. Thanks! Don't stop what you're doing!
This is exactly the kind of content I watched as a kid on VHS, Discovery and Science Channels. I loved watching shows of construction and how things were built. Thanks for this Grady, please please do another video like this of another project!
Thanks to Grady and the PC team and all those involved in producing this entertaining and informative documentary. I also think that documentaries like this are not only necessary but essential for a well informed public. Not everyone would find this fascinating but it is brilliant to know there are people like Grady and the PC crew producing content like this so that the general public can get an insight into the essential services that are provided so that we can live in a functioning society relatively stress free. Cheers.
I Worked on lots of these projects big and small all over Washington state in my 40 plus year pump repair and sales career. A great trip down memory lane.
This is an amazing video. Thank you everyone involved for moving the sewage. And thank you for taking so many precautions in ensuring a long lasting safe sawage system
Super educational and very well made video, thanks a lot for everyone's effort (and shout out to the construction crew and the involved athorities for having allowed you to make that documentary)! It shows how complex the execution of such a construction project is, and thus how these complexities have to be taken into account for the design work.
By the way: The umarell (pronounced "oomaRELL") is an old term from the city of Bologna in Northern Italy that has spread into the rest of the country only in the past couple of years. To be a true umarell, not only do you have to be retired, but also to watch the construction workers with your hands folded behind your back and a judging and slightly disapproving look on your face (as in "those younglings don't do it like I used to do, and that's wrooong"), and shout suggestions at them every now and then for them to happily ignore. Else you're just a spectator! *g*
There all kinds of videos about construction projects available on the Internet, of course, but as an engineer, this is probably the best I have ever seen. It's all the detail that makes it so interesting - the details usually glossed over in the other videos. I know it was 1.5 hours long, but it certainly didn't seem like it. Well done, Grady. By the way, the book is great too!
Just wow! I can't believe how much planning, preparation and work goes into something as innocently sounding as a "sewage lift station". What a fantastic video, hope to see more of this kind in the future. 👍
Side note, I'm also surprised about the amount of rain. As an ignorant European, I always thought all of Texas was about as dry as a desert. 😉
This is an insane amount of (video) work. Thank you for producing it. Fascinating.
Fantastic production, great to have it all in one video! Thank you for providing this incredible content, free of charge, for all of us to enjoy. Many thanks from the UK!
Having worked in construction much of my life, I can certainly attest to the great satisfaction of seeing a project come together. Thanks for piecing the previous videos into this documentary.
Hi Grady! Thank you for a great and informative video! As the product architect for Flygt products (see our products 1:20:00 into the video), I am very thankful for bringing this to the world! Please let me know if there is anything I can help with in upcoming videos or personal interest and pay us a visit when you are in Sweden, you are so very welcome! Many thanks and we at Xylem (Flygt and Godwin amongst many other brands) are looking forward to upcoming content!
I absolutely LOVE these series!
Meticulous job superbly documented. You all deserve congratulations!
Narrated in human languages. This piece is good for education, good as an audit proof reference, while its pleasant and fun to watch.
Thank you sir!
Your eyes and attention to the tiny details, without losing focus on the big picture tells me that you yourself are a big time engineer. Your mastery of the trade/science is visible in your simplistic explanation of the whole package to be understood by any average person.
Students are lucky if you were to teach them
Great video all building videos should be done like this .
Here you get the detailed information on why things are done the way they are .
Most programs skip the detail and tell you nothing useful or interesting .
Great work keep it coming .
Love all your vids and your passion for civil engineering and how you explain things. I really enjoyed the longer format and hope you sprinkle them in amongst your usual stuff at a future date, though I realize they take way more time and effort to produce and edit. Gonna be a good hour and a half watching it all in one go
Incredible video, raising the seemingly mundane construction of a lift-station to an inspiring display of engineering and construction. I would never have thought such a video would capture my attention like this one did. It really makes me appreciate the hard work these guys do to put together society's critical infrastructure.
I love your practical construction series, Grady! I've been putting it on in the background while I do things around the house, it's oddly relaxing. It feels like How It's Made!
Thank you for the video. I enjoy watching stuff like this. I can see all the expertise needed in projects like this plus I like watching workers with tools and equipment making things work. Maybe you could do a future video on the engineering and designing of these projects on how they approach something like this and what kind of issues they have to take into consideration in the design process.
Fantasic video! Really well made and very interesting. Would love to see more content like this!
Excellent. Not yet retired but enjoy the long format versions of these. Hopefully more to come. Interesting to see the similarities and differences between US, UK, and European civil engineering projects. I have limited experience with Asian projects but that's a different kettle of fish altogether.
Excellent detail, and explanation of the work. good camera recording, of all the different jobs.
First rate project design and implementation. This type of infrastructure is critical to our quality of life, and it’s obvious that this work is extremely expensive.
Thankfully our municipalities still value these types of projects.
Grady, I greatly enjoy your videos. Your enthusiasm is contagious, and this long video was a real eye-opening look at the huge amount of design and engineering that goes into infrastructure projects. Wow!
Congratulations, excellent work Grady and Team! I'm sure I am not the only one usually skipping 90m+ videos...
But somehow I knew this will be worth watching; and I wasn't disappointed the least. Nice job!
You can't skip it when you know it's Practical Engineering.
Being a developer, I also cannot help myself admiring your excellent name choice. :-)
Ps this stoobid app is rather buggy when it comes to addressing someone…
Great episode. When I saw it’s more than an hour long I thought it will be boring but once I started watching I enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you for sharing.
Loved watching all the episodes together like this. I've always enjoyed watching construction and getting to see all of the details was a real treat for this old pensioner 😊
To beautiful, Grady had done it again . Very very good and presented perfectly 👌
I did electrical and controls on sites exactly like this. very good description of it all. even at a sped up high level overview, you got all the major points. including things like thrust blocks are good details.
This was fascinating! I have a friend who does design for commercial projects and we were just talking about one of his lift stations yesterday. Great timing.
This really helped give me a visual for what’s going on. Thank you so much.
Hi Mr. Hillhouse, fantastic series! But I wonder, what do you think if it is possible to make a small aeries about the sewage treatment facility of San Antonio?! It would be a logical follow-up to this series. Sure not everybody wants to see where their excretions finally end up. But modern sewage treatment plants are more sophisticated than those 30 years ago! I always wondered what happens to the stick of digested food after I push the flush button!? I don't see many reports about how a modern sewage treatment facility works! Can you help, please!?
The attention to detail and mechanical engineering required for, such a seemingly innocuous civil engineering project is astounding!
Bringing back lots of memories to this retired Michigan civil engineer. Interesting to see the extra steps needed to deal with reactive Texas clay.
Thank you! I have been around industrial-level construction for almost 4 years, now, and it's amazing all the effort that goes into making large facilities, or even just many interconnected facilities (like a subdivision). One note: most of the concrete that gets poured needs a site-engineer or similar around to make sure the finishers don't keep asking for more water (especially after collecting the test-wheelbarrow). The truck drivers will do what they're told, so it's pretty frequent to see a tester get concrete to test, then the truck be released to a pump and ... immediately add 10-20 gallons of water. It's not great, but it makes the concrete more easily worked. Having someone to ride herd on the crew who cares about the finished work is important because concrete is frequently foundational (lol) to the stability of the structure(s).
This is great! Really gives a good understanding of what comes into play with this real kind of projects. Real practical engineering. Thx so much for posting
Excellent work Grady and thank you for all your great videos and explanations.
new video! oh just combined old videos that I watched as soon as they released. it was a really nice series and I hope this helps more people to watch it