Thought some might get a kick out of this. Local to me. An example of how a series of poor choices can eventually get you stuck badly.
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/05/05/100loc_a1sunk001.cfm
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That's like a government project. sheeze, they should have had that thing out by the next day.
jt8
"One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." -- Arnold H. Glasgow
This is one of those situations where it would be great to have a progression of photo's. From day one, offloading the excavator and getting the 2 minute tutorial on how to operate it, thinking "I want my driveway by that big old swamp hole, to getting the tracks buried, etc. etc. etc. Would make a great case study.
You think that guys got problems ---check out this project managers headache.
I'm sure that was a very big problem for someone, hopefully no one was hurt. That picture of the water rushing in was amazing. The whole Dubai building boom is interesting. Surprisingly there hasn't been more problems like the one posted. I would think anytime you have that much activity draining resources, more problems wouldn't be far behind.
1. Do you think that sump pump is still running or did they have time to turn it off?2. First prize for the fastest completion of an olympic swiming pool.3. The developer went to the building dept to get a variance for a water park.4. Thank god they got the hook on the crane out of the water, those things are a PITA lube.
Deskguy,
That's too close to home, I use to sell John Deere stuff and they told me I could use one of their excavators to dig the foundation for my addition..
I took a new one home and started in friday night and had it well in hand,, just a little bit more on saturday and I'd be done.. I shut it off on the back side of the hole I'd dug thinking just a few more hours and things would be perfect,, I could even see the tree that I planned on digging up and transplanting first thing in the morning being a much easier job than I'd thought..
I went to bed and that night the sky fell!
I mean gully washer time. There's the excavator on the wrong side of a fully filled muddy hole, 8 feet deep.
Absolutely no other way out except thru that hole.. it rained all day Saturday and most of Sunday. Monday morning dawned brite and sunny and I had to go in to my boss and explain.. Wouldn't you know a customer wanted to buy that very machine! (and wanted it right now!)
To make a very long story short (a week long story) I got fired because of it.. Somehow I should have known better..
Ouch, sorry to hear that. Was this your current addition? I had to rent a small excavator last weekend, stressed me out thinking about rolling it or messing it up in some other way. I hate those "should have known better" moments. Not that I've had any :)
deskguy,
Yeh,, It's not that I don't know how to run an excavator, I've got to be good enough to make it perform well enough so the potential client who's going to be nervious witha new machine..
But I can't control the weather..
"Sir please initial here X-------- if you would like to waive the additional liability coverage." " Let me inform you that the $12.95/day charge releases you from any liability for damages to the equipment, otherwise you will be liable for the cost to repair or replace the equipment". Nah I'm pretty good at figuring stuff out I should be fine.
Or something to the like, what a bummer.
Next month up at auction slightly wet JD excavator low hours.
The $12.95 does not realease you from damages caused by negligence or stupidity. Both probably apply here."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
there's a ponit right there.
couple years ago i call and reserve a backhoe to clear out some tree's.i get there and they give me a brand new backhoe,has 4 hours on it. now i,m not a backhoe operator and they no it because i have them run through the controls.
so i go about my bussiness and i'm 10 minutes from being done and a tree limb gets caught and swings around and breaks the curved glass out of the cab. i feel bad ,but it's done done.
so i take it back and explain what happened and there like"no problem we'll get it fixed and send you the bill".i said what do you mean you made me buy insurance for 10.00 a day for accidents. oh yes but this is being stupid damage [they had a better word for it,but i can't remember] i said i have never had a accident that the moment it was done i didn't think"that was a stupid move".
bottom line i told them[i have never said this to anyone before] sue me ,i'll see you in court. never heard another word. since then they always gave me a used up backhoe.lol larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
I still think the "best" example along these lines was a video sequence out of somewhere in Europe, I think, a coupla years ago --
Seems a car ran off a dock so they brought in a small truck crane to pull it out. Crane, predictably, falls into the water.
So they bring in a bigger crane to pull out the small one. Crane, predictably, falls into the water.
So they bring in an EVEN BIGGER crane (about the biggest standard truck crane you could have) to pull out the other two (car has to be a total loss by now). Hard as it is to believe, THAT one fell into the water.
I don't know what they did after that. But I'm glad I wasn't their insurance carrier.
If you look at those pictures of the car in the water sequence you'll see that the pics of the big crane falling in are doctored. Next time you see it take a close look at the surroundings, the people standing, the boat in the water, through the whole sequence and see what you come up with.
Edit to clarify: it was the bigger of the 2, that was doctored into the water.
Edited 5/8/2007 5:36 pm ET by john7g
So they bring in an EVEN BIGGER crane (about the biggest standard truck crane you could have) to pull out the other two (car has to be a total loss by now). Hard as it is to believe, THAT one fell into the water.
The second crane going into the water was a photoshop'ed picture.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/crane.aspjt8
"One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." -- Arnold H. Glasgow
Quotes for the article: "I've had nothing but troubles lately." "He said he decided to cut the driveway only after learning that he had no access to his family's 4.5-acre parcel, which was recently purchased for $65,000."
I think there's more than bad luck involved here. Discovered no access after buying the property?
Yeah, that was my point. Bad choices, not luck. Beyond not finding out about access. He didn't hire a competent contractor/excavator to do the job. He probably had it bid and got laughed at. There's a reason that highway in the background is raised, it's a flood plain, everything is wet, or really close to wet/ swamp/ bog. In this area, if the land was usable and easily accessible, it would be closer to $250,000 than $65,000. Bad choices on after another.
Many years ago I bought a lot beside a highway and a turn off. I was new to the area and someone had mentioned that because of the turn off I might not have access. I told my lawyer who was doing the deal to check into access. Anyways the deal went through. A few months later I got a load of gravel and dumped it into the ditch to give me access to the lot. Luckily I noticed half buried in all the bullrushes was a driveway culvert. A week or so later I got a registered letter from the highway department that they would not give me access. When I spoke to my lawyer about it he wouldn't answer my questions . (it was the one and only time I used him). I ende up driving to the main office of the highway department and tried to explain about the culvert that was there and it hadn't been buried until I buried it. At first they refused to help me but one of those people dug into the files and found that when the turn off had been built about 10 years before one of the workers had made a small note that he dropped off a culvert in the ditch. That saved me.
#### happens.
roger