It seems like around the Fort Worth, Arlington, Dallas Texas metroplex there is a world of street work going on. I mean it's every where, lanes closed off, detours.....etc.
Now can someone tell me why just about EVERY TIME I come upon one of these little street parties there is ALWAYS seven Guys standing there, with there Official Hard Hat on watching ONE dude down in a hole actually working, and of course there is ALWAYS one dude sitting on the Back hoe Tractor waiting for the ONE dude in the hole to finish whatever the poor smuck is doing.
Does this seem like a waste of my tax money or what......, oh yea and just about everyone of the seven Supervisors standing there with their hands on there hips has a beer gut so huge they can't even see their business. Maybe they should get there ass in the hole with the skinny dude and work off some of that gut!
Ever notice this in your town or is this a Texas thing???
Night Dragon

YOU ACTUALLY HAVE SOMEONE WORKING IN THE HOLE??????????

Over here the "Holes and Barriers and Cones" appear overnight and are then like that for the next few weeks!!!  I have never seen anyone actually WORKING in one of them, hey, in fact, I have never seen anyone official even looking at them before!!!  Then they bodge the hole filled and stick a load of black stuff that aint flush with the surface and of course it just wrecks suspension of everything that has to go over it...

I should take some video footage and show you...lol... I Aint Kidding!!!

So to answer your original question...lol...No it aint just in your town...lol...

A couple hundred feet in the air it's a job just hangin' on. But yeah, it seems only 2 out 8 dudes may actually be doing something along the highways. Seems like a good job though if you can get it. Road work never ends.

Peace

Well on a pipe gang it's a three man crew,operator,bottom man,top man,now I'm sure if you want to be all three you can find a contractor to hire you,just be prepared for a lot of up and down,and I would especilly like to impress upon you to make sure youcut those ditch walls back on a 2to1 slope,cause if the ditch caves in all the passers by wont know the difference. Thats if they slow down enough to see. Those people out there are'not out there to piss you off,they are trying to earn a living,and maybe better their communities.

our crew is 1 super... 3 pipefitters.... 3 welders....1 rigger and a gopher...and everyone including the super works his ring off....if you don't carry your weight on an oil rig in the north sea you get a new job soon, crews are limited on a confined space. As for the schmuck down the hole dragon....bear in mind if he's using an air hammer/jack he's only allowed use it for 10 minutes at a time in any given hour, so if its an urgent job...it can take a few bodies and one of them has to be "trained rescue"...as a former G.I i'm sure you know how dangerous a hole in the ground can be.

well they are gonna be laying off about 3/4ths of those highway workers soon... China is building a $30,000 shovel that will stand up by itself

So the roads will be going to shit soon?

I 'm a bit over an hour south of DFW,and I thought it was a ritzy 'burb thing as far as 6-7 guys watching the one guy work! Don't forget about at least six extra trucks and trailers left running while parked and nobody around as far as the eye can see.Yeap, thats our tax dollars at work! When you do see somebody in the trucks its only a flash as they barely miss side swiping you, due to the fact they're hauling 80mph on a 40mph service road as you turn out your driveway.

'Round here, there known as "Stupidvisors". The guy in the hole, bein' plainly stupid, or he wouldn't be down there...
Same goes for the "new" roofing crews, poppin' up all over town. You got 4 or 5 guys shoutin' the orders to the "laborers" on the roof.
And I can't imagine how ANY thing gets done, witnessing the things one see's in the orange-coned "under construction" areas. Heck, in J'ville, the same main thoroughfare, has had a crew on it, for the last TEN YEARS...
And you're absolutely right, that IS your tax money, you're watchin'...go up in a cluster of smokers.

Ride Free
Tweek

In a town close to us they completed road consturction early, but are hanging around doing little odds and ends because they have to leave for, get this, Dallas Fort Worth when they complete the job. Ain't life grand? I used to live in the DFW area. Great place!

Around here it seems to be the city,state county and utility crews that work like this. The private contractors on the other hand are the ones that seem to get things done and with less people.

I suppose the only saving factor for the tax payer is at least these guys are not creaming the welfare system..

Welcome to the world of compleat and udder stupid people. Out here along the wire. We are stoned emaculant!
Right here in river city. The wonder Crew hired here in Washington State. BOSS Paveing. To reshoot Vail Rd in thurston county. Compleatly failed in there mission. Promised to be done no later than Oct. 30 2011. At this point still not done. Road was paved by 3 year olds. Thurston sueing them. The only thing that gose slower than street crews! The justus system.

Ain't gonn'a throw rocks @ the guys in the trenches and about the only thing NY does right is maintaining their roads but gwd, the things they did with their "Stimulus" dollars.
Putting up signs to alert you to signs - Putting roundabouts in perfectly good roads where accidents are one per 5 year affairs.
I gave them most of a TRILLION dollars and they give me signs notifying me about signs + plus the odd roundabout - and - oh yeh, lest I forget - A study at Syracuse University on the effect of weed & malt liquor on the libido of co-eds. Probably a lot of sophomore guys would have done that study gratis .
In the meantime I get to watch the concrete spall away from the re-bar supporting the I86 bridge pedestals. - If you blasted them, epoxied them & poured new concrete you might save a few million replacing the pedestals.

For you politicians out there I should explain what a "trillion" is
1 trillion = $1,000,000,000,000
or in political speak
1 trillion = 1,000 BILLION
or
1 trillion = 1,000,000 MILLION
(yup, you would need to tax 1,000,000 MILLIONAIRES 100% of their income to get a trillion, pity is only something like 78,000 of them)

My question is this 95 in Georgia has had work going on there for the last 15 years and the road still isn't complete. There is more heavy equipment sitting idlle there then anywhere else in the country, they have yet to mange 3 lanes completed yet in that short distance, If I did my job like they did theirs I would have been fired the second day of work.................."T"

Let me say this about that... I was a union construction electrician for 25 years, a steel worker for 3 years and tried my hand at several trades, to see which one I wanted to be. So, I have driven the dump truck, ran the backhoe, tied rebar for the road bed and been the guy in the ditch running conduit for the electricity required to light the road, run the traffic sensors and all the assorted signage for directions etc. Working on the road with cars whipping by at 40-70 mph is a scary dangerous job.

Think about these facts: You pass by and see folks standing around. Sometimes, you are forced to stop for a few minutes while a truck/backhoe etc are moved into place. Your entire time elapsed at the site is between 1 and 5 minutes (not counting rush hour). How can you think that nothing is ever done when all you see is a snap-shot? Yes, there are Stupor-visors that come out of their trailer and look as tho they are just standing around. In some ways his job is the hardest. He has to coordinate several trade's schedules, have the right material and tools at the right time, sometimes ordering 2 months in advance. There is VERY limited space on a road job so he can't just order all of what he needs at once... where would he put it? He is also in charge of hiring/laying off and man power demands as the job cycles from start to completion.

Then, there are the cement trucks that have to dump their load within 90 minutes of being filled. They had to weave their way thru traffic with a 35 ton load that is spinning and waaaay up in the air, makes turning a sharp corner very interesting! Also all the assorted deliveries have to be scheduled so they don't conflict with traffic/each other. If ONE truck is off by 15 minutes... it throws a monkey wrench in his/her very tight schedule.

Yes, there is some wasted time... yes, there are slackers on every job, BUT! Every road job is dependent upon everyone doing their job to the best of their ability. Now days, the General Contractor will often post a bonus of several thousand dollars a day for early completion of a project. MOST contractors will share the bonus with the workers. That ALWAYS puts a fire under everyone's butt to do the job right the first time and finish early.

SO, unless you have worked on a road crew... I don't think you can imagine all the things that are woven together to create a safe, productive job site. Next time you pass a road crew that risk their lives everyday to bring you a new road.

As far as the folks that post that their 'New Road' is F*ked up... There are strict specs that govern the finished product, so the State inspectors are to blame for allowing the job to be completed when it does NOT meet the specifications...

Thanks for reading and understanding,
Edge "BeenThereDoneThat" Walker


 

   like the year they put some southern mix on I-75 in Ohio.  Lasted less than 6 months.

peace

I have to agree with Edgewalker and as a former DOT (and current electric utility construction) guy myself will stand up for these guys. At least when you're digging around possible underground utilities, you HAVE to dig by hand. You don't want to hit a gas pipeline, water service, etc., with a backhoe... bad things happen that way. And think about the temperatures we've had recently. How long can *you* throw dirt out of a trench in 100 degree weather? You're not going to be digging a trench for eight straight hours under these conditions, I promise you that. There are going be a lot of breaks while someone else takes over digging for a while. When I was a DOT guy, you'd see a bunch of us standing around next to a bridge and would probably assume we're just "wasting the taxpayers' money." In reality, we'd be doing an on-site walkdown to design a replacement bridge, kicking things around with the maintenance folks, the bridge designer, etc., trying to sound out the issues.

Personally, I wish people would not be so quick to leap to conclusions about things they may or may not actually understand. To me, it's no different than non-bikers making ugly generalizations about bikers because they drive a Prius and just can't relate to the whole "biker" thing.

Well said, Edge!

can you say union?

The problem is "power". Ya give someone a little and they go crazy after that.
Every organization takes advantage of attained power.
N.O.W.; NAACP, SPCA, ACLU. MADD; AFL-CIO, TEACHERS UNIONS, ETC.

What starts out as perfectly logical, justified, fair turns into a quest for more control, more power. I don't see where doing shoddy work, not showing up for work, lack of performance, etc. should be exempt from retribution just because you have "tenure" or are in a union.

I've worked both sides of the street; not union shops as well as UAW. I've seen both sides of production or lack thereof. I understand both sides even though I don't agree with boths sides categorically. There are a lot of hard-working people in the public eye. They do deserve respect.

Peace

I have to agree,too much power concentrated in one group or groups can create chaos.All those who perform public service are held up to a higher standard in some sense & I can see how our culture fosters this view.

Rev has a good point also,most folks dont see all the standing around & break taking done by office people for US govt.tho thats a given on almost any sort of office job,all of which can be mind numbing & tedious work.

Its too bad the perception of the public is one of lazy workers,while in reality most of those guys standing around each have their own role to play in completing these sorts of projects within the guidelines set forth by the state or local govt that dictate them.My hats off to all the govt workers & DOT workers who face daily hazrds while at a work.