It’s that time of the year again in the United States! Signaled by the changing of leaves in the northern climate or the bombardment of Black-Friday ads no matter where you live, the Holiday season is upon us!
And with the Holiday season comes colder temperatures. For some of you, those temperatures may have started weeks, or even months ago. A recent check of our forecast for the upcoming week was a reminder of how quickly weather conditions can change – we’ve had lows in the teens already and several inches of snow here in parts of Ohio and surrounding states, and I know it’s been worse elsewhere.
Needless to say, this cold weather impacts projects and can be particularly tough on geosynthetic installation projects. Geomembrane installations are especially challenging in cold weather – especially those that require a significant amount of field seaming to be performed such as an HDPE or LLDPE job. Even the pre-fabricated materials such as PVC or Polypropylene will require field seams when project size exceeds that of the maximum panel size of which can be pre-fabricated and cold weather will definitely impact seaming. PVC gets brittle in cold temperatures, making it even harder to deal with to ensure quality welding.
A key to getting through the winter, whether it be hunkering down during a snowstorm, driving across the country in the winter to see relatives, or hiking out in the back country is winter preparedness. There are key supplies that you should maintain, as well as a plan of action. The same holds true for geosynthetic construction projects being performed in cold weather – you need to be prepared and part of that preparedness is a cold weather seaming plan included as part of your CQA Plan.
My goal is to help in that preparedness! It’s surprise quiz time!
Yeah, I always hated when teachers gave me exams right before the holidays too! But, in hindsight, it was probably a better time since I’m not sure I would have had the same information retention if quizzed after the holidays. Since we are talking cold weather in this blog, I thought I would give a quiz on exactly that. And because GRI Test Method GM9 is often the industry go to standard for guidance in cold weather seaming, I am including it as part of the quiz.
Take a few deep breaths to calm the mind while removing visions of a nice turkey dinner and all those squabbling relatives shouting louder than the football game your trying to hear– they’ll all still be there regardless of how you score on the quiz!
Ready. Set. Go!
