That one brutal week on the job at the ethanol plant near Decatur

I had a week last August that I still think about sometimes. We were doing a turnaround at a big ethanol plant outside Decatur, Illinois, and everything that could go wrong did. My crew had to replace a 12-foot section of a 36-inch pipe that was cracked, but the welder we had came down with something on Tuesday and we had to pull a guy from another crew who was good but slow. On top of that, the crane we needed for the lift was already booked for another job down the line, so we had to wait an extra half day for a different one to show up. The heat that week was brutal, 98 degrees with humidity so thick you could chew it, and we had to keep stopping for water breaks. By Thursday afternoon I was so tired I forgot my hard hat on the lunch table and had to walk all the way back across the site for it. The worst part was the client's safety guy kept walking through our work zone and asking questions every 20 minutes, like we needed that distraction. Have any of you had a job that just spiraled out of control for no good reason?

2 comments

2 Comments

dylan_brown301d ago

Damn that sounds rough. I had a boiler job in July that was the same kind of nightmare.

stella_taylor1d ago

At least you didn't flood the basement like I did with mine, rookie numbers.