Most of us have heard the phrase “Hindsight is 20/20”; meaning that you have perfect vision when looking back at the past, and likely could have avoided some problems by looking more clearly ahead.
Picture 1: Safety
With Independence Day quickly approaching here in the United States, many of us have already planned our three-day weekend, down to the burgers on the grill, which fireworks shows we will go to, and how we are going to maximize every minute away from work. However, if you have not done so already, now is the time to be planning how your construction project is going to be maintained over the holiday weekend.
One of the top priorities for everyone will be safety. Even on the construction sites with the strictest safety requirements, it is a good idea to be spending time in every daily safety meeting reminding everyone to focus on the tasks at hand through their last shift prior to the holiday; additional meetings at lunchtime also serve as a valuable reminder. Various statistics show that workplace accidents increase ahead of holidays.
Picture 2: Desiccation that could have been avoided
For compacted clay liner (CCL) projects, plans should be made regarding moisture maintenance of the clay throughout the holiday weekend. I cannot count the number of CCL projects on which I have been involved where the foreman looks completely stunned when I ask for a maintenance plan, especially if they think it involves having to pay someone to water the soil throughout the weekend. Pray for rain. Rain poses it’s own set of problems, such as proper drainage, especially away from geosynthetics that may already have been installed.
Although many geosynthetics projects will not require maintenance while the installation crew enjoys a rare long weekend, proper planning ahead of time is essential. Geosynthetics materials need to be securely anchored. Drainage of surrounding areas should promote water flow away from the geosynthetics. Depending on what materials are being used, the geomembrane may itself need to be watertight prior to the end of the last shift.
Picture 3: Geomembrane Blow-out
As a CQA technician, your focus must be on all of these things, and you need to mentally double-check that everything is done prior to the end of the last shift. You need to pay particular attention to safety, as well as what the contractor is doing. You should double-check that there are indeed plans in place to maintain things over the weekend (such as clay moisture), that the contractor did set-up the proper safety barriers prior to leaving, that the geosynthetics are anchored, etc. You, the CQA technician, likely will be one of the last to leave the area for the day so make sure to snap some photographs of the conditions prior to your departure.
Monday morning will be much better spent telling tales from your enjoyable weekend than getting blindsided by a problem that should have been avoided.
Field Insights
The end of shifts immediately prior to a day off, and especially prior to a longer Holiday weekend are good times to ramp up your CQA testing effort.
For CCL’s, pay particular attention to the number of passes of the compactor and the speed of the compactor—plenty of failing tests have been found as the contractor ramps up efforts to get done for the day.
For Geomembranes, fusion destructs near the end of seams, or other problematic areas, such as after burnouts or after welding through a cross-seam are places where people let their focus down in efforts to start the Holiday early. For extrusion, samples near the end of the shift are a good idea in assuring the quality level was maintained as the Holiday approached.
