There is one individual that I work with that likes to make mountains out of mole hills and tries to make himself more important that he really is. This individual, I will call him Bob, but his name is really Ed, came to talk to me today. He asked me about a training I will be helping out with for construction staff. When out on a construction project, everything needs to be documented. So if the contractor places 100 linear feet of curb and gutter, it needs to be measured and documented. This is pretty simple, you have a wheel or a tape measure and you physically measure from one end to the other. Then that number is put into a spreadsheet which then totals up all of the curb and gutter on the project. That total is then entered into a program which pays the contractor for that curb and gutter. Bob told me that people do not properly measure and document water. Water is an item that gets paid for in the unit of "mega gallon". 1 mega gallon is 1000 gallons, at least by the DOT's definition. Bob asked me "How do you measure water? You know there are at least 4 different ways to do it." I told him there are only 2 ways that I knew. The first would be if the water was taken from a city well, which would be directly from a fire hydrant and the city would put a meter on the hydrant. The second way would be to read what the capacity is of the water truck, in most cases it should be written somewhere on the side of the tank. If not, there is this thing called the internet where you can type in the make and model of the truck and it should pop up with the capacity. After I told Bob, those two, I asked "So what are the other two ways?" Bob said in a real pompous tone, "You could weigh the truck empty and full and then calculate how many gallons based on the difference in weight." I gave him that one, it was a reasonably good answer. I had never seen it done that way before, but sure, that makes sense. Then I said, "So what is the 4th way?" Bob paused and then couldn't come up with another way. To which I said, "What the hell are you telling me there are 4 ways, when you can't come up with the 4th way?" He really didn't say anything after that. You can bet that from now on, whenever I see Bob, I am going to ask him if he figured out what that 4th way is. I will try to be sincere and will explain that I want to learn as an engineer. When really I just want to put him in his place.
Now let's get into what really got me started on this rant about work. I was at a public meeting this evening to discuss my project which is starting on Monday. For safety reasons it was decided within the last month that the local road that is under the bridges that are being reconstructed will have to be closed during construction. Some residents that live on the road aren't too happy about the road being closed. The first question that came up was, "Are you going to post a detour?" Here is the answer I wanted to give, "It is a local road, which in name alone means that for the most part, only people who are local and familiar with the area use the road. Why would someone who knows the area need a detour?"
The next question was actually more of a complaint. "On Monday, every one who normally uses the road isn't going to believe that the road is closed and will be turning around in my driveway. What are you going to do about it?" This is the same individual who earlier in meeting made mention that the one of the portable changeable message signs is right next to his driveway. For the record, this portable changeable message sign was put in place a week in advance of the closure and reads "Road Closed Starting 2/20/12". The answer I wanted to give, "Other than the big sign next to your driveway that reads 'Road Closed Starting 2/20/12' what would you like me to do to alert the traveling public of this road closure? I can't read it for them."
The next question was from a concerned parent. When it was learned that the road would have to be closed, the local emergency services were notified as well as local school bus company. Due to this closure, the bus company is requiring 2 children that live on the south side of the project to walk to the nearest road on the north side of the project. It was made clear that the site will be kept as clean and safe as possible to allow for pedestrian traffic through the area. Still she was concerned about her children, she had even offered to allow the school bus to turn around in her driveway, but the school bus company would not grant her request to have the school bus go down that road. What I wanted to say was, "This project is going to happen no matter how you feel about it. I will make your children's passage as safe as possible. Other than that there isn't much I can do. I can not make the bus company do what you want them to do."
She went on to say that the road itself isn't in very good condition, the shoulders are bad and the ditches steep and is still worried about kids walking the road. I wanted to say, "So what, the road is going to be closed, your kids can walk right down the middle."
Then her husband chirped in. "What about when the guy who is on vacation for 2 weeks tries to get through, gets frustrated and then is speeding back down the road past my kids walking home from school?" What I wanted to say was "What guy? Give me his name and I will give him a call and tell him personally that the road will be closed starting Monday." Obviously his reply would have been, "I am speaking hypothetically." To which I would have replied, "Hypothetically what about the guy breaking into your house and kidnapping your kids while you are at this meeting? Are you worried about that?"
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