What I do for a living

[Grant Lamontagne]

My old career alternates between extremely boring and a bit too exciting, and I greatly enjoyed it.

Nowadays though, I mostly just represent a project engineer on road building sites.  It's pretty well just boring most of the time, and I spend a lot of time doing very little.

This weekend however is a bit different.

I am at a crossroads between two major highways and we are doubling the width of one of them.  This means we need to build an overpass over the other one.

We have built the structures on either side of the lower highway, and one in the median, and this weekend we are going to put giant steel girders across from the butments to the center support.

This morning we are doing the girders over the inbound lanes, and tomorrow will be the outbound lanes.

We are working from 4am until noon on the weekend to minimize traffic disruptions as much as possible, as these are normally very heavily traveled routes.

Here are a few videos of the area we are working in, at various points in construction.

https://youtu.be/0qyOEjOta3w?si=uWLg8oEF1ZzEC338

https://youtu.be/HwpXJe4eD88?si=fhVmL0zTvw1KixVX

https://youtu.be/DAoQ4RXiUkQ?si=4INFwLsaJS5Oiz9_

Below I've attached some images of the girders we will be moving into place using a crane rated for over 400 metric tonnes.  The girders don't weigh that much but as they will be awkward and offset from the crane body as they need to be swung, we always get much bigger cranes than we need.  These girders are around 63mt each, or about 140,000 pounds, and so are not something to be lifted and swung around with impunity.

Right now the labor is laying out 6x6 beams of wood across the closed highway, and then laying cushioned pads (basically old tires cut apart and woven back together with steel cable) over top of the wood.  This makes a cradle that the crane can then crawl out onto without risking damaging the road surface underneath.

Ordinarily I refuse weekend work as I generally put in about 60 hours a week already, and I don't want to waste my precious time off, but I decided this weekend might be worth coming in to get some cool drone footage for my LinkedIn, where I try to post videos that make this job look interesting.   

I'll update this thread over the weekend and again whenever there is anything remotely interesting going on at work!

Meanwhile, if you want to see other cool videos I have posted on the past, which includes excitement like painting lines or a machine that poops out curbs, feel free to add me on LinkedIn:

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/grant-lamontagne

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

If you like watching cranes work (and how could you not?) then this may be if interest to you!

https://youtu.be/_5ptNChBXVo?si=gjLiYR3BD8Ma3cUT

Def

[old Lefty]

So cool!


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[Barry Rowland]

Good stuff Def! 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Thanks guys.  There will be a few more edits with more footage as we go.

Looks like I won't be off by noon due to some equipment issues but fortunately it won't be much longer.  It's five minutes to noon now and we only have one girder left!

Def

[Barry Rowland]

I know that feeling well Def!! 

[Farmer X]

My old career alternates between extremely boring and a bit too exciting.

Life as a ship's company Aviation Machinist's Mate was much the same. Sometimes there was so little to do in home port that I'd only put in a four-hour shift.

As someone who's thinking of going into one of the trades, I'll watch those videos with great interest!

[Grant Lamontagne]

Here is a better one.  It starts with some of the other clips and goes through to the end of today, which was two hours later than it was supposed to be.

https://youtu.be/mRpoA_4exK0?si=t-Fohs-ew-PWPWbK

While it bookended nicely with launching and landing the drone, it's actually the same clip, only reversed.  I didn't have a launch video so I cheated.   

Def

[Vidar]

I'm always impressed how those cranes handle big loads on long arms without toppling over. Sometimes it just seems counterintuitive.

So now when you drive around you can talk about you were part of building the various roads you drive on? That is a very tangible long term testament to your work.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I spent much of the last five years building a 5km section of highway. I remember when it was dirt and forest and now it's a highway. 

It seems very weird to have other people driving on it.  For the last couple of years most of it was paved while we worked on various access points and I have spent a lot of time sitting in the middle of the roadway or going the wrong way down it, and it just seems odd to have the public there all the time now!

Def

[Vidar]

My grandfather drove a bulldozer and was part of building lots of the roads and bridges and around here. Which is a nice thought.

He was also a passionate fisherman and berry picker. One year they were working on a big upgrade of one of the main roads. As they worked along he and a like minded colleague realized that a sideroad could bring some of their favourite fishing spots a lot closer by car. So, off hours, they built this very unofficial gravel side road for 2-3 kilometers. Other times back then I reckon - building a road these days without permit would likely cost you a lot. The family of the other guy has kept it in good shape and we still use it occasionally.

[Grant Lamontagne]

This highway has opened up access to a couple of lakes that haven't been fished in at least 59 years, so many people were looking forward to it.  I am expecting there to be absolutely horrid repercussions to this.

In the 50's or so there was a fire and the ammunition depot right next to this area, and this resulted in an "unauthorized and random redistribution of assets" and the military deemed it too dangerous to send people out into the woods and swamps to try and locate any unexploded devices.  Their solution was to annex the land (easy enough to do as there was nothing there but woods and swamps), put up a large fence and say "This is ours, keep away."

Fast forward fifty years and someone says "we should put a highway right through there!"

So we did, and we found seventeen unexploded devices.

I am concerned that there are going to be people that find the ones we didn't when they go off the main roadway to find a good fishing spot.

Def

[Vidar]

Yes, that does sound rather risky.

I know two people who got a metal detector. They went to a hillside to try and find stuff, and it was beeping quite a few places. They had brought a shovel and was giving their all with some proper good shovel kicks into the ground to try and dig up some of these metal items. Well, that particular hillside is next to where the remains of the German surface fleet was anchored during WWII. The British  did many bombing runs at it. So apart from lots of crater shaped landscape features there are also some duds which didn't explode on impact - and which might make metal detectors beep happily years after. A bit of checking goes a long way sometimes.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I am glad to hear that they didn't find anything the hard way!   

Def

[WhichDawg]

hmm for some reason I always thought Grant was a longshoreman or some kind of loader…NOT an IRONMAN! 

[Grant Lamontagne]

For 17 years I worked as a Marine Surveyor, investigating shipping claims, verifying cargo integrity and confirming inventories, so yeah, I worked pretty close with Longshoremen and warehouse people.

I had to give it up shortly after my accident in 2016, and since 2020 I have been working as a government construction inspector. 

TBH I absolutely hate this job and only took it figuring it would be a stepping stone to a job I actually wanted, but thanks to internal politics it seems to be more of a hindrance.   

Def

[powernoodle]

I suspect that you have more opportunities to deploy an MT than I do tapping on a keyboard all day.   

[Grant Lamontagne]

While taking those Bond photos the other day I looked up and one of the construction foremen was watching me with a confused look on his face.

I had to explain that I am King of the Plier People and needed to supply the internet with constant photos of fancy pliers or else.

Def