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

Days thus far

So Thursday we continued to do work. The days are starting to blend together so I will try my best to post every day from here on out. That is doubtful to happen but it is good to hope. My job basically is to shadow the lead inspector and assist him in anyway possible. I have so far taken the duty of doing all the FIR's which are field inspection reports on all of the bid items to make sure that ODOT will accept them. Hardly ever does this become an issue but I am in charge of that because if something goes wrong we have something to fall back on. My daily reports for the project will be reviewed by the lead inspector so it is really good to pay attention to detail and make sure you over exaggerate things to make an impression. The weather was supposed to get bad Friday so the contractor did the best it could to met their weekly goals. Some of those goals were finishing the storm drainage from one inlet to the other inlet which they did and marking centerline for subgrade of the road with hubs so the road later next week could be checked by surveyors.

Friday it of course rained. I spent most of the day in the office working on pay notes for the bid items. How the contractor gets paid monthly is by the amount of bid items they install. They give us the report and we write up the pay note. That is my job. So that kept me busy. Another thing is taking a lot of pictures of the site so we have something to fall back on if something goes wrong. So I uploaded the pictures to the computer and filed them. Along with all of the paperwork, I make copies of everything just in case and since I am not paying for the paper why not.

Today I was out on the site the first half of the day by myself. This was kinda boring because I didn't have really any direction to start with so I had to make myself busy. It is hard when other utility companies come up to you and ask you questions and you have no idea. In the end it all worked out. One downside to the project we found out today was the 18 inch storm pipe they installed last week didn't meet specifications with compaction. Since ODOT is in charge of the job they have different standards and specifications are always changing so it was to bad to see this happen. Now they have to dig up the 3/4 minus and recompact everything which throws them out for a loop. We are nearing the end of the storm drainage installation on the first phase of the project so I look forward to seeing it complete.

This week I am supposed to be getting some action on some asphalt paving so I am looking forward to that. I will most likely be a night shift but this weather has to change for anything to happen. Anyways, I hope to keep you all posted with the progress. I hope to post pictures of the plans to people have an idea what I have to look at and translate to real life situations. Till next time.

My first three days

So I started work Monday, spent two hours filling out paper work  to start out the morning. I found out in the process of all of this that I get my own work space, a cell phone, an email, and a computer for the duration that I am working with ODOT. Pretty cool if you ask me. The only thing I could ask for is that the email stays the same and that this position opens up an opportunity somewhere within ODOT. This has been my selfish prayer for the last year to get a job somewhere and so far it is working to plan. So thankful. After getting settled in I got paired with the engineer I am shadowing. Nice guy with lots of experience. The site I am working on should be a city job but ODOT has it. A local construction company is doing all the work with the engineer I am shadowing being the main inspector. So let's just say I do a lot of standing a round but I am learning a lot. I probably make more then the laborers on the job site do but that is okay I guess. After getting settled in it was basically the end of the day. A local landscape truck delivering soil to a local resident it one of the contractors water truck but no damage was done. With this happening I can finally go into all the paper work I am going to have to deal with on the job. Should be fun. After each day I have to fill out a daily report of what construction has been done and keep it on record. Tasks should pick up as the job progresses but this is okay with me, I don't mind it.

Tuesday I started at 7 in the morning and headed out to the site. To give you a low down on the project, the road heading towards the new high school built in South Medford is being extended and having sidewalks constructed. Along this is a storm drain system that has to be dug out to be completed. This has been the main focus thus far in the project. Blueprints for projects never work out to print I have come to find out. On paper it works but in the real world you are bound to have a problem. An example is on Tuesday we hit a lateral sewer line that was not marked and not far enough down. Man are their more stories that go with this problem. This halted construction for half a day but luckily they found something else to work on. Installation on the storm drain will continue for the rest of the week.

Today I was lead inspector on the job. The engineer I shadow had another project to inspect so I imagine this will be happening a lot but I am up for the challenge. I got a little of crap today but a lot of the guys are super funny and nice so I can deal with it. Prior to the job other companies like for power, water and sewer to be exact should have finished their job. This was supposed to be done by the end of May. We had everyone their today. I have never seen so many backhoes excavators and trucks in one strip at once. I made sure I took notes of everything I saw so I could record it in my daily report. I also have a camera so we can go back and double check what has happened just to double check. So far this internship is more than I could ask for! I started my day at 7 and got home at 6 but that is okay, I want the experience. I'll get to work tomorrow at 6:30 to finish more paperwork in hopes that I get off around 3 but we will see. Overtime is time and a half so since most of the people I hang out with are in Corvallis except a select few in Eagle Point, I'll take all the overtime I can get. Look forward to filling you all in more with stories as time goes on. Should be an enjoyable ride. God bless you all and until next time

Summer of Fun

Howdy all, wanted to really try and keep the people that are interested in my life posted on what is happening this summer. As some of you know I have an internship with ODOT in Medford which is a blessing! I grew up here and living with my family one last time will be super fun and enjoyable as well. I will be working a lot but will be seeing some people I haven't seen in a while as well.  Some of you have already asked me how my internship is and I have said it is great! I want to use this blog as much as possible to update you day to day. Just in the three days I have worked I have so many funny stories and this blog will help organize my thoughts. My past three days will be posted later tonight but I wanted to put this out there to the people that might want to follow over the summer :) Thanks!