Posted on 07/11/2007 9:00:02 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
ROFL!
Well that should be the capper for a great thread!!!
chuckling!
59 & 60 are excellent cappers, both!
50 Beale St
Then they better re-inspect the tensile strength on the scotch tape holding the rest of the thing togeather.
But, if you use an epoxy that does not become/remain rigid in order to protect the bond with the concrete, then you get plasticity failure.
You talk like an engineer from an area of some expertise.....?
Did I give myself away? My experience with epoxies on large concrete construction projects began about 25 years ago. Allot has changed in 25 years, but people still are making the same mistakes. The difference is that now we should know better.
Now that is damn interesting....any idea why the knowledge isn’t more widespread?
My sense of the Big Dig matter is that it was the pet project of former Congressman Tip O'Neil, who though dead, should be held accountable for this monstrosity.
The freaking Transportation building in Boston is named after of all people...a professional politician.
I have never understood the logic of naming big stuff after public parasites, err, I mean politicians.
Yes.
More and more work is performed by Engineers in Training (EIT's). Modern Engineers come out of school and immediately start work in design, and have little practical construction experience. Even when they are placed in the field for construction observation, they have no idea what they are looking at, since very few have worked summers as laborers on construction or survey crews. This has resulted in a crippling disrespect for those with decades of practical construction experience by EIT's (Ego's in training). Today's Engineer was yesterday's EIT. Today's Engineer, many times, does not even know the right questions to ask.
The establishment of product performance testing during the design phase seems to have become a lost art, as has the hands on aspect of engineering.
The first question will be how was this epoxy selected. Was it selected out of a catalogue or of a spec. sheet for a specific purpose. Was a/the manufacturer of the product contacted to verify that this was a suitable product.
The second question will be who was it that actually selected the specification that was used. Was it a Senior Materials Engineer, a Junior Engineer, an EIT? Who is very important, as this gets back to an earlier point, did they know enough to ask the right questions?
I'm an engineer too, and the problem is EXACTLY that they "didn't know". Why didn't they know? Any sober designer would realize that a failure in securing the tile would likely get somebody killed.
So my question is: what studies and documentation did they obtain, and what independent testing did they perform, before deciding to use this particular glue in a critical application? What is your boss going to do to you if you specify a component, whose failure will cause death, without extensive study and testing to back up your decision?
Thanks for the reply....I suspected as much....
Pinging a friend...
The designers should have known, and researched it. That’s their job. The political pressure to get it done on schedule screwed everyone in this case.
Thankfully, I don’t have the boring job of doing design work. I’d be looking for new work had this been my screwup, and it would probably be in some prison, but that call is not for some dope with no experience in construction/engineering/design to make.
Good points! Yeah, there was a serious shortage of engineers on this project who could intelligenly answer the questions that we, the contractors, so badly needed answered because of a very incomplete design.
Money pressure is one reason so much of the stuff is done by junior engineers, eit’s and summer interns.
4 years of hands on field experience should be just as crucial to obtaining an EIT as knowing how to handle thermodynamics tables.
Amen
- If you bothered to read my comments, I said was that it was my “impression” that all concerned with the dig were more focused on making the project last as long as possible, based on my “observation” that the few workers that I saw were preoccupied with doing as little as possible. For a project way over it’s time and cost budget it was not exactly a beehive of activity.
PS - with a handle like “clam digger”, it’s my “impression” that you may be someone from the north east. Do you have some good friends on the gravy train? Tell them not to worry. With the tunnel roof caving in due to incompetence, the train will continue to crawl along slowly, dispensing even more money, before reaching the station.
In the rest of the country, the “Big Dig” has become the “Big Joke”.
Yep. no knowledge of mega-construction projects, just insults from the ignorant.
Never before has a project the magnitude of this one been completed, and it’s never even been tried in an urban environment.
Gravy train my arse. These are business people and workers. Nobody is riding any gravy train here, dope. All the work was bid competitively. If you know so much better, how come you can’t do it?
“The Big Dig is the most expensive highway project in the US. [1] Although the project was estimated at $2.8 billion in 1985, over $14.6 billion had been spent in federal and state tax dollars as of 2006. [2] The project has incurred criminal arrests, escalating costs, death, leaks, poor execution and use of substandard materials. The Massachusetts Attorney General is demanding contractors refund taxpayers $108 million for “shoddy work.”
In other words, this boondoggle has been going on for over 20 years, is 521% over budget and it’s still not even finished or safe to use. The whole thing gives a whole new meaning to the term, “Yankee Ingenuity”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
