Almost every construction project has a morning where you get a call, hear something to the effect that the crew who was out there yesterday screwed up, so they need to go back ASAP and fix it, because there are men and machines sitting around because of the screw up, and it's costing them money.
The crew gets sent back, checks their work, or finds out from the supervisor that everything's fine but since they're here, they need additional stake out.
I'm sure the day will come when it is our fault, but so far this has always been the case.
Also a little off topic but I was reading a sample question from the FS exam and said you're laying out cut/fill stakes to the flow line of a sanitary line and find the elevation of MH A to be different then plan.?ÿ What should the cut/fill be at station X?....The basic premise was to re-calculate the slope of the line and calc a cut/fill.
?ÿ
Stop immediately and notify the GC/Design engineer was not one of the answers.
I like to leave a paper trail for plan discrepancies and site conflicts.?ÿ Whether that will help if something goes squirrely...I'm not sure.
You're taking a risk, in my opinion, if you do any re-design without discussing with those you mentioned, and getting some kind of decision and documentation. If it's engineers at your own company, you still might want to have a discussion with them first, as to why the design mistake
@jph I think that was his point - the example question for the FS exam did not provide the only correct answer as a choice.
I think you're right, and I was agreeing with him. Maybe that wasn't apparent in my post. Next time I will start with, "I agree 100% with you"
Thanks
Yes. That was my point. I hate laying out anything that isn't called out on the plans in black and white.
Engineers around here (everywhere?) are notoriously bad for not providing enough spot grades along curbing. Many times your left having to interpolate from contours or nearby structures.
My preferred solution is to tell the GC I can give him horizontal location but he's gotta figure out which way the water is supposed to flow.
@holy-cow, While we're at it. "A qualified expert witness, loses points. (if you turn your points loose, you may very well lose them) 🙂
My mentor would have us out the door by 7:30 am and start taking calls at 8:00 am, so they would have to wait until the next day for anybody to check anything.
0.02
Well, there's always that small chance that we may've staked something wrong. And because of that, if it ever were the case, I'd be pretty happy that we went back and checked, found the error, and nothing got built in the wrong place, and I wasn't on the hook for a several thousand dollar fix.
99.9% of the problems became problems because their crews would destroy the offset points or knock out the grade stakes telling them what cuts or fills to make and at what offset distance from our grade stake.
It was either that or they needed a grade check on something that took all of one setup a backsite and foresight to fix and half a day round trip they did not want to pay for.
It did not take many episodes for the contractor to appreciate the stakes we set for them or to be the person responsible for any delays they encountered.
Another reason to keep records and get the site manager's approval after each staking session to protect you and your company when SHTF.
Records are critical.
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