Week of July 9th-13th

This will be a weekly thing just so ya'll know. When you put in the hours I do you become pretty tired. So here is last week in a nut shell :)

Monday- In the morning a delivery truck dropped of 36 inch concrete storm sewer pipe! Extremely huge by the way. The pipe crew had to lower sewer laterals all week and since the pipes have asbestos in it they had to be extra careful. It is taking time. For the grading crew they continued to excavate the road to get ready for curb and gutter to be poured by the end of the week. The contractor pouring the retaining wall showed up to start working on the wall. After they pour the footing it takes a week to cure and since I am writing this 9 days later, they just showed up today to pour the stem so one more week of curing. One of the mixing trucks hit a cable line but luckily it didn't break :/

Tuesday- On this day nothing changed from the previous day. One thing that was different is that we had to perform some stabilization on the grade. That consisted of digging down 1 foot and filling the hole in with 4 inch minus or shell. This helps with the overall grade of the road so that in the future it won't fail. I had to measure out the areas of the digouts for payment so I have to be as accurate as possible.

Wednesday- I get to the site on this morning to find out the grader has a flat tire. Having gotten to know the crew over the last month I have learned a lot. Donny the foreman for the grading crew takes pride in what he does. His equipment is like a kids toys in a sandbox. Don't mess with him! The tire got fixed and he was up and running in no time. My mentor David had decided to go on vacation for the rest of the week. Another inspector showed up on the site to get familiar with the project. Good thing for him and for me the next two days would not be that exciting, haha

The next two days- I found myself for the first time looking for something to do. The crews where basically slowing down for the week. Grading was almost done and they had curb and gutter set for Monday. The sewer laterals finished up Friday and on Thursday they found out they have to relocate some water services because they are in the way of the 36 inch pipe. What is new! So water lines are on the agenda for Monday and the pipe crew.

One cool thing about this week was I got to know another inspector. The funny thing is this inspector has the same name as a friend of mines in engineering at OSU. Jake Pritchard is his name. One the the funniest things. The only thing I feel bad for the guy is that he lives in Roseburg! I live in Medford. If you are not familiar with the distance between the two cities, that is exit 30 to exit 124! Almost 200 miles a day! Just to support his wife and 11 year old daughter! I have such great respect for that guy. If I ever have to do that to support my family I will, but man it must be tough. 3 years and counting he has done this.

I got paid at the end of that week and I was pretty happy with the outcome. Not only is the internship an experience but it pays good that is for sure. Not complaining one bit :)

Until next time, God bless

Stand In Awe

I love this song and love this album! I wanted to post this because it is so good! Hope it blesses you how it has me :)

Stand In Awe

Week of July 2-7

This week on the job turned out to be pretty well given we had the 4th off. Most people get paid for the holiday but I don't. I tried seeing if overtime pay would kick in at 32 hours instead of 40 hours but that wasn't the case. I still got 41 hours in for the week so I can't complain. Averaging 9-10 hours a day and 45-50 hours a week isn't bad for my situation. I couldn't have been more blessed having the chance to live at home with my parents and save money at the same time. It is good to just come home and relax and visit with my family. I miss Corvallis but I am going to make the most of the next 2 months because odds are this will be my last time at home ever. Their is a possibility that ODOT may want me to work for them after I am done with school so I could move home then but that is further down the road so I don't have to worry about that just yet.

One of the many things that is great about this job is I am starting to really get to know the workers. To sum up most of the guys they are a bunch of perverts but they work their butt off! Being around construction surely hasn't helped with my sailor tongue but I look at this as a season in my life where I have to work on some things. Everyday is something new and I am learning a lot. My mentor sometimes throws me under the bus with paperwork but I look it as a challenge. So far I have done good so I am happy.

As for the project. We have moved to another phase which means cutting into another street and installing storm pipe. 30 inch pipe has been installed up to a certain station where we have to cast in place a manhole. The engineers at the city that designed this project sure have had a lot of problems. What makes this experience good is that I now know what mistake not to make. One of the problems with their design that they think is fine is having a 36 inch pipe flow into a 30 inch pipe. In all logic that is completely backwards but that is their choice. While the pipe is being installed the main road is being cut for subgrade before we build up the road. This phase is almost done and one of the most interesting things to me I learned last year in school was the process of building a road. I am now seeing it firsthand and it is amazing. At the end of the week, the contractor that is building the retaining wall showed up to form the area up with rebar for the footing to be poured. This got started today and I have a picture posted showing the process from afar.

With this job it can be super tiring. With the weather making a turn for the worst in terms of heat, I will be getting a lot of sleep that is for sure. I hope to keep up with more posts in the future but for those following the fun I am happy to share this part of my journey with you. It is so easy to get down on yourself when everything doesn't go to your plan. It happens all the time to me. But I am so glad God's plan for my life is better then the one I make up in my own mind. This summer has been a great journey and it is just getting started. Thank you all and enjoy the ride. God bless

THE F.N.G.

Well it has been almost a week since my last post and it will probably continue to be a regular thing given my busy work schedule. The internship has been great. I am known as the F.N.G on the site which stands for f-ing new guy which I take pride in. I got quite a few hours last week with it being the end of the month. We have to pay the contractor for what they have done so far on the project. It is a chore for the most part I'll tell you. After the 11 hour day on Friday and 12 hour day today it has been stressful and challenging to meet demands. Good thing most of it isn't my fault. I record daily reports on the project so my hope is to by tomorrow have some fun and interesting stories up. The bed is calling my name but God bless my followers and more is to come. Peace