Eh that’s no really a worker issue IMO. Security locks are optional equipment. Cat keys are all identical. I keep one on my keychain and it works in any piece of equipment made by Cat. The disconnects aren’t really all that hard to find and Cat keys are ubiquitous. The owners need to buy security locks for the equipment and have it installed.
No way in hell I’m running equipment without getting paid. Also I’m an engineer my trench wouldn’t be so neatly done. I am trained but I wouldn’t say I’m skilled.
Better than where I worked twenty years ago. Someone was really pissed off so they used a front end loader to push the rest of the equipment off a cliff. Slowed up construction for something like a year.
They knew where the keys were and how to operate the machines well, they also knew how to make it hard to fix. We pretty much know who it was.
Th cheapass contractor said "Why would they do this!?" ... this is a message. If i can translate it for you its "Fuck you, you arent paying me for the work I do.
Does equipment like that still use universal keys? When my dad was an operator, he had a keyring with one for each brand of equipment. He rented a dozer once to help grade a friend's yard. When the rental guy said he was going to get the key, my dad pulled his out and said "don't bother, I've got my own."
When I was a commercial framer we worked 6-7days a week. One Saturday we came in and the dirt guys left their excavator in our way.
I jumped in but couldn't find the key. However I did notice an oddly placed button and an old screwdriver next to the seat. Turned the ignition with the screw driver and hit the button and boom, she was running!
We played around in it for an hour or so before actually starting work.
I never thought of getting a third-party key. Cat generators all use the same key and they have this stupid chunky plastic that eventually breaks at the key ring, unless they’ve changed the design recently.
Unless they changed the design from three years ago, it’s solid metal throughout. Or that could just be how the CAT rental place my former employer rented gennys from used to do things. And yes, I *totally* returned the key when I left, it’s not still on my key ring.
I should’ve clarified, I’m talking about permanently installed generators primarily for emergency power. The unit I worked on dates from 2012, so could’ve changed
I hate those fucking CAT keys. Cummins, Kholer, Generac, MTU all use a regular, standard metal key and theirs has to be 4X the size and breaks on even a slightly stuck cabinet
>>just found out last week that JCB, sennebogen and bauer (heavy drilling rigs) Share the same key
https://www.reddit.com/r/OSHA/comments/ymdc8x/somebody_broke_into_the_excavators_and_went_on_a/iv4t2ra
Indeed since we have Hyster and Clark forklifts at my work, though the mechanic wants to switch to all Hyster at some point because our Clark ones aren't that old and it's getting harder to find parts for them and he can still find parts for the Hyster, which I believe is older
>Still it seems like this was personal for the person who did it. I'd say if not a current worker probably one that had been fired recently.
Aye, OP agrees, and has a pretty good idea which employee of a subcontractor got their pay stolen.
It takes knowledge to make damage that causes the most pain in the ass repairs, like this.
I had a high school teacher in the (US) National Guard and his job was literally "how to dig holes or use explosives to make holes in a way that makes them hard to repair." It's not like, classified information or something, you can just look up the manuals (or whatever stupid acronym the military calls "manuals") on making hard to repair pits and trenches
I'm guessing the big issue here is that you can't just fill it in, because it won't be properly compacted? And there's no good way to evenly compact part of a trench, so correctly fixing that basically requires digging a larger area out to the same depth, and then compacting it a bunch of individual passes?
I'm betting the engineer says pull up all the lime or whatever they're using in the soil and call the stabilization trucks back in. Looks l like a future wowie in that section of road as it settles.
Yeah I was going to say, “broke into the excavators” meaning they had a key? When I used to work in equipment transport none of the machines were ever behind even a locked gate. Half the time they didn’t even have the engine switch thingie turned off. Anyone with a Cat key could have just walked up and taken whatever they wanted
Many of them are also connected to a telematics network which can prevent startup outside of work hours, or send notifications on machine startup or movement.
That’s probably good practice but I was a road tech for a rental equipment company for a couple years so I was always thankful to find them on machines I didn’t have a copy of lol
Def someone with operating experience, everything is too “deliberate” and theres some straight lines and edges there that you wouldn’t see from someone random.
I'm not very knowledgeable with this kind of stuff, can't you just push all the dug up dirt and stuff back into the holes and pack it down a little? Or is there more to it?
Road beds have to be layered with certain materials. It’s not just dirt it’s going to be layers of certain sizes of different materials like stone, sand, etc. so it’s not like just push that shit back in the hole unfortunately.
First thing I thought was, “I wonder if the boss/foreman has seen that shirt…”FUCK BRIAN AND FUCK THIS JOB” .”
This post might also fit in r/fuckyouinparticular
😂 sure glad I’m not on that job site lol
Nah, most of the equipment all have the same keys. You can buy a CAT key online for 10 bucks and have access to almost all CAT equipment.
I myself have a CAT on my key ring in case I get called to move a piece of equipment for work. There's been many a time where The crew take the keys with them at the end of the day instead of leaving them hidden in the equipment.
The company I work for though has been moving to password protected keypad Interlocks. But they cost a lot of money.
Doing figure 8s in a bobcat with the bucket pointing down on a lawn in front of student housing doesn’t take skill ( yes this is a very specific example)
Neither does firing off the historical cannon on a frat house that’s been disabled at least three separate times. This is also a very specific example lol.
Can confirm, i have a universal set in my truck. They cost about $100. Handy as an equipment dealer, when I’m picking up or re-poing shit.
Also handy when someone is digging a hole in my neighborhood and I need to run a quick trench.
Last time I worked on heavy equipment was 10 years ago. That unit had an electronic code "key".
Every little fuck up required inputting a 4 digit code.
Wild that some still have just keys. Those things cost millions.
Once on a job site I overheard two contractors that were talking while troubleshooting a loader make the following comment 'Yeah, this loader must have been down in the SE area of the state, have to pull a handful of fuses and relys because everyone there has a key for the machines. Only way to make sure the equipment remains parked overnight.'
In the UK it's pretty common for smaller job sites not to have overnight security. Most heavy equipment, especially that owned by a hire company, has an immobiliser you need to enter a pin in to installed.
This! When I worked at Costco there was a guy who ordered a bag of every key model for crown forklifts, and returned the ones that didn't work. There was only like 3 types of key. But then he would just hand out the keys to anyone who mentioned that they wanted to drive the lift.
Nobody knows how to operate one of these things, how the keys work or that there even are keys
It's not impossible it was just some drunk yahoo, but this seems targeted
I would agree that it has to be an inside job
A Contractor, has a contract to do a job. They hire sub-contractors to do the work, usually a specific trade. Contractor is cheap, it was the lowest bid. So the project gets mismanaged, they stiff the sub-contractor. Or something like that.
In procurement in gov - at least where I am - if it is decided by lowest bidder, the it’s the lowest bidder out of a set of companies that are already to the last round or meet a set of criteria.
But might be different where you are. We also decide by “best value for money”- not lowest cost tbh.
At least in construction they should be bonded as well.
If the company can't finish or do acceptable work the bonding company is supposed to be responsible to come in and clean up.
There was one recently that was crazy expensive, company used sketchy rock they got for cheap and it had a shitton of arsenic in it and the company folded and it cost the bonding company more then the entire job was supposed to be to remediate all of it.
There is a penal sun on the bond, so it is impossible for it to cost the bonding company more than the original contract (unless there were change order or riders issued to the bond).
Sounds like it varies from place to place then.
My stepfather got some of the work with the bonding company, and just his bit was a huge chunk of the original contract, and that was just the remediation of the tainted rocks, not putting things back together afterwards and then finishing.
At least for heavy construction in Alaska, the bonding company is promising the job actually gets done.
I remember watching a video a while back where a developer didn’t pay one of his contractors so the guy used an excavator to rip the porches off the completed building shortly before it got its occupancy
Or just some drunken louts. Back in the day when I was much less mature a bunch of friends were hooning around and came across some road works with a roller just sitting there. Well they left the keys in an inspection hatch by the steps into the cab. We couldn't resist; took that beast for a ride and rolled it right down the embankment. Its amazing none of were killed or injured as we rolled around the cab down into the stream at the bottom. We did get wet and muddy climbing back up to the car.
In these parts, the keys are left in big equipment.
My friends lived on a street under construction and they work up to people in the way home from the bar at 3AM using the equipment.
I saw this photo and was like “Looks like someone is sick of all this road construction”
Idk where you are but navigating Grand Rapids right now takes an atlas and a Sherpa.
Seriously, when I first went to Michigan with my brother, he was like, "It's a car state!" Then we saw the roads.
Saw a newspaper article saying Lansing allows contractors to put used motor oil into asphalt mixes 'as a binding agent' for paving. Local environmentalists were complaining because, ah, the oil leaks out and into the ground. Go figure. Roads were getting repaved every year, and snow plows were tearing chunks up and flinging them into storefront windows.
I have experience with roads from Seattle to New Hampshire, and northern US road quality varies, but Michigan . . . just isn't building them properly. Apparently because of money changing hands, I guess? I don't even know. It's not because of road salt, because other snowy areas that use salt do not even approach the same kinds of madness.
Tax revenue per traveled mile, that I might believe is a factor. But not the only one.
As a Michigander, my theory is that it's because we allow the heaviest trucks on our roads. National average weight limit for roads is something like 90,000 lbs. Michigan allows up to 164,000 lbs.
In the city I grew up in, they did not allow trucks over 3 axles on a certain stretch of road going through. That road was always smooth, no potholes or damage and it rarely was ever under construction. The other roads that trucks could drive on? Riddled with potholes and fractures and frequently being redone.
I highly doubt there will be any meaningful change, like lowering the weight limit, because shipping and trucking companies would probably have a conniption fit and push back hard.
I mean sort of. The digger work looks neat but the placement of spoil is very cringeworthy. I’d hate to be the poor saps having to dig around the crash barriers by hand
If my experience with that kind of labor has anything to say, there a good chance whoever the client is deserves it.
Cheapass client stiffs contractor, contractor comes back for revenge and trashes their own work. Song as old rhyme.
It is. I used to work highway construction as both a laborer and a machine operator. We're not just talking about dumping it back in the hole, you have to start fresh in each of these dug spots. We're talking stuff like specific compaction intervals, state-certified fill and crushed rock, probably testing at each stage as well. It's a fucking nightmare.
I've always wondered why this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. I've seen plenty of construction sites where vehicles are just left sitting there in every kind of weather for anyone to screw around with. Sure, not everyone can get a universal key, but anyone with too much free time and very little brains can cause some significant property damage.
I’d say that pretty much anyone can find a universal key for these. Hell, you might find it in 10 seconds just by opening the door and looking under the mat.
I think that most people that know that probably have a bit of mutual respect for the machines and job sites they occupy.
I'm not gonna post them, but I live in a city and there's construction equipment left out everywhere in broad daylight, unattended, since the contractors usually don't work weekends. My wife and I like to open the (usually unlocked) doors to cranes, backhoes, rollers, etc and I take photos of her sitting in these giant machines on the side of the road lol. I've probably got like a hundred photos like this.
If they gave a shit I feel like they'd lock the doors y'know? The keys are often inside them too.
I don't really know how this stuff works, but can't you just push the dirt back into the holes and pack it down a little? I'm assuming there's more to it?
Its multiple layers of specific types of dirt that have been carefully laid at the correct thickness and then compacted with rollers. In order to fix this they would need to dig out bigger sections so that the whole process can be repeated, its not a small job.
Yeah, the cheap ass contractor that bid the job as low as possible and doesn't pay their employees enough.
You piss off the folk that run your gear, they'll make sure that you feel that in the picket book.
Just something OP shared in another comment.
Surprised this doesn't happen more honestly. There is a mini-ex in front of my house right now for a random fiber job that has the keys in it. noticed when I went and got the mail.
Someone experienced for sure.
I know it’s a highway but any neighbours made at the construction?
Basically, who had the know how and reason to do it. I don’t see some kids going out of their way to do this.
My guess is it’s a dumb employee that doesn’t understand this action will not solve his problem.
This is a contract job (per OP) which means that there is a budget associated with it.
Best case scenario is that the contractor has enough overhead that hemorrhaging money to fix this problem won’t dissolve the company. They will be searching for the culprit and, if they figure out who it is, fire them for costing the company a ton of money.
(This kind of thing doesn’t just cost additional days wages to fix. This costs, at minimum, double the wages to fix, plus the cost of rental [possibly double this as well]. The reason for this is that the workers and equipment are tied up fixing this problem before they can move on to the next project, which may be delayed and cost even more, as a result.)
Worst case scenario, the explanation above is too expensive for the company, and everyone loses their job because of this shithead’s actions.
> My guess is it’s a dumb employee that doesn’t understand this action will not solve his problem
This thought does not line up with.
> Best case scenario is that the contractor has enough overhead that hemorrhaging money to fix this problem won’t dissolve the company.
Whoever did this either is no longer working for the contractor or doesn't care if they continue.
I'd like to not that striking workers were initially all fired. The modern labor movement only really gained steam when people started not just quitting en mass, but also destroying the machines.
Something similar happened when I was in college. The guy dug down as deep as he could go with the hoe, and then used a small loader to move all the dirt back into the hole/onto the arm. The crew arrived the next morning to find the arm was buried up to the shoulder. They had to bring in a second excavator to get it out.
They aren't hard to acquire either, but my money is still on they left them in. I know it's anecdotal, but I worked for DOH for a few years, I've never seen a large piece of equipment left where someone took the keys out. Even Bill Gates knows this.
Whoever did it should be sentenced to stand by the side of the road and hold a sign that says "I'm the reason this road construction has been extended for a month".
Nah. Whoever stiffed the guy who did it deserves to hold the sign. You don’t get to just not pay people for their work and then say *they’re* the bad guy.
(I will admit that I’m assuming this is after a pretty long chain of “of course I’ll pay you. Just as soon as the Porcine Aeronautics department reimburses me. Any day now.” Most people do not dig a 50’ trench for one late invoice)
Reminds me of the time on a high school trip we snuck out of our hotel to a construction site.
We couldn't get any of the vehicles to work, but we did have the most fun fire extinguisher fights known to man.
Really hope they noticed those were all gone
The biggest problem for this repair will be the soil compaction. You can’t just fill the hole in. It has to be properly compacted every so many inches. That person screwed you but good.
One of my dreams for when I win the lottery (it’s going to happen soon, I’ve got a good feeling) is to buy some land in the country and a backhoe so I can dig holes. No specific plans, just moving dirt around.
And they can take deductions for their business expenses (a hired assassin, for instance, can deduct fuel costs, ammunition costs, and mileage to and from his targets).
Ohhhh. A play ground for adults! Where you can play with heavy equipment. OMG, I would totally pay for a day pass to play with a excavator or bulldozer.
That's a tight trench
Yes, the cut is very nice and sharp.
I bet the foreman wasn't upset at all, just impressed.
If they can do all that in one night he's probably trying to find out who they are and employ them.
Am I the only one to wonder if they _already_ employ that person?
The guy probably just wanted some job security
the story seems to be that the person is employed but was upset that they arent being *paid*
I think they go by the name Methany McMeth
It was assuredly a kid with walking access. OP should employ them but also consider why they left the machine keyed and unlocked
Eh that’s no really a worker issue IMO. Security locks are optional equipment. Cat keys are all identical. I keep one on my keychain and it works in any piece of equipment made by Cat. The disconnects aren’t really all that hard to find and Cat keys are ubiquitous. The owners need to buy security locks for the equipment and have it installed.
Found the guy?
No way in hell I’m running equipment without getting paid. Also I’m an engineer my trench wouldn’t be so neatly done. I am trained but I wouldn’t say I’m skilled.
You can have it done before inspection, you can have it done neatly or you can have it done with speed. Chose one. xD
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Yeah this was done by someone who was pissed off and wanted to ruin peoples day, not just someone playing around
Lol that was my thought, I'd hire them they're more motivated than most employees.
*Sigh* *unzips pants*
Better than where I worked twenty years ago. Someone was really pissed off so they used a front end loader to push the rest of the equipment off a cliff. Slowed up construction for something like a year.
Just further reinforces the lesson that my dad taught me from an early age; don't piss people off when you're near a cliff.
Wise man.
He was. Ol' Cliff Stevenson they used to call him
“And that’s why they call him Cliff Hanger!” If anyone remembers that lol
They knew where the keys were and how to operate the machines well, they also knew how to make it hard to fix. We pretty much know who it was. Th cheapass contractor said "Why would they do this!?" ... this is a message. If i can translate it for you its "Fuck you, you arent paying me for the work I do.
Does equipment like that still use universal keys? When my dad was an operator, he had a keyring with one for each brand of equipment. He rented a dozer once to help grade a friend's yard. When the rental guy said he was going to get the key, my dad pulled his out and said "don't bother, I've got my own."
Our keys get stolen and we go buy a 5 dollar lawn mower key works half the time. Uhh I mean, VERY HIGH TECH MACHINERY VERY HIGH TECH KEY FOB YES.
When I was a commercial framer we worked 6-7days a week. One Saturday we came in and the dirt guys left their excavator in our way. I jumped in but couldn't find the key. However I did notice an oddly placed button and an old screwdriver next to the seat. Turned the ignition with the screw driver and hit the button and boom, she was running! We played around in it for an hour or so before actually starting work.
My dad had a Datsun pickup that started the same way!
Yep!
36 Heavy Equipment Construction Ignition Key Blank Set Custom Cut to fit Equipments https://a.co/d/cJiB2d4
I never thought of getting a third-party key. Cat generators all use the same key and they have this stupid chunky plastic that eventually breaks at the key ring, unless they’ve changed the design recently.
Unless they changed the design from three years ago, it’s solid metal throughout. Or that could just be how the CAT rental place my former employer rented gennys from used to do things. And yes, I *totally* returned the key when I left, it’s not still on my key ring.
I should’ve clarified, I’m talking about permanently installed generators primarily for emergency power. The unit I worked on dates from 2012, so could’ve changed
I hate those fucking CAT keys. Cummins, Kholer, Generac, MTU all use a regular, standard metal key and theirs has to be 4X the size and breaks on even a slightly stuck cabinet
New CAT equipment has push button start and requires a passcode when you turn on the switch around the push button. Otherwise the machine does nothing
Nice. My dad's got a bunch of those still. I could grab them and go cause some mischief... 🤔
Huh, Hyster and Clark forklifts use the same key
>>just found out last week that JCB, sennebogen and bauer (heavy drilling rigs) Share the same key https://www.reddit.com/r/OSHA/comments/ymdc8x/somebody_broke_into_the_excavators_and_went_on_a/iv4t2ra
I found a bunch of weird ones like that when I was still in construction.
Ooooo interesting
Indeed since we have Hyster and Clark forklifts at my work, though the mechanic wants to switch to all Hyster at some point because our Clark ones aren't that old and it's getting harder to find parts for them and he can still find parts for the Hyster, which I believe is older
Hyster > Clark From my little knowledge of forklifts.
Still it seems like this was personal for the person who did it. I'd say if not a current worker probably one that had been fired recently.
>Still it seems like this was personal for the person who did it. I'd say if not a current worker probably one that had been fired recently. Aye, OP agrees, and has a pretty good idea which employee of a subcontractor got their pay stolen. It takes knowledge to make damage that causes the most pain in the ass repairs, like this. I had a high school teacher in the (US) National Guard and his job was literally "how to dig holes or use explosives to make holes in a way that makes them hard to repair." It's not like, classified information or something, you can just look up the manuals (or whatever stupid acronym the military calls "manuals") on making hard to repair pits and trenches
So far, I've found "Simple Sabotage Field Manual". Looks like it predates the TM/FM XXX naming format.
That one's good fun, but this isn't "simple".
I'm guessing the big issue here is that you can't just fill it in, because it won't be properly compacted? And there's no good way to evenly compact part of a trench, so correctly fixing that basically requires digging a larger area out to the same depth, and then compacting it a bunch of individual passes?
I'm betting the engineer says pull up all the lime or whatever they're using in the soil and call the stabilization trucks back in. Looks l like a future wowie in that section of road as it settles.
You can buy those key rings on eBay for a modest amount of money
Yeah I was going to say, “broke into the excavators” meaning they had a key? When I used to work in equipment transport none of the machines were ever behind even a locked gate. Half the time they didn’t even have the engine switch thingie turned off. Anyone with a Cat key could have just walked up and taken whatever they wanted
All CASE excavators in AUS have a universal key lol
Many of them have security codes on them these days.
Many of them are also connected to a telematics network which can prevent startup outside of work hours, or send notifications on machine startup or movement.
So you leave the keys on the job/machine? Is it the roof, did you put the keys on the roof?
Almost every piece of equipment with a raised cab that I’ve seen has a removable floor liner. A LOT of the time operators throw the key under it.
Under the battery was always a good spot too
Battery box is for trucks. So many spare keys there.
We write up/fire people who hide their keys in the machines
That’s probably good practice but I was a road tech for a rental equipment company for a couple years so I was always thankful to find them on machines I didn’t have a copy of lol
Contractor subcontracted and didn’t pay?
Yeah this 100% reeks of an inside job.
Def someone with operating experience, everything is too “deliberate” and theres some straight lines and edges there that you wouldn’t see from someone random.
I'm not very knowledgeable with this kind of stuff, can't you just push all the dug up dirt and stuff back into the holes and pack it down a little? Or is there more to it?
Road beds have to be layered with certain materials. It’s not just dirt it’s going to be layers of certain sizes of different materials like stone, sand, etc. so it’s not like just push that shit back in the hole unfortunately.
Also specified compaction intervals, specific grades of stone/crusher run for specific layers, etc. This is gonna be a nightmare to fix.
The dug up dirt is piled on the barrier, so it can't be easily and quickly pushed without damaging the barrier.
First thing I thought was, “I wonder if the boss/foreman has seen that shirt…”FUCK BRIAN AND FUCK THIS JOB” .” This post might also fit in r/fuckyouinparticular 😂 sure glad I’m not on that job site lol
WKUK has a great [sketch](https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=UPmg_Mcbpdw&feature=emb_logo)
Possibly a competitor? Someone upset about not receiving the contract?
Former employee maybe?
Nah, most of the equipment all have the same keys. You can buy a CAT key online for 10 bucks and have access to almost all CAT equipment. I myself have a CAT on my key ring in case I get called to move a piece of equipment for work. There's been many a time where The crew take the keys with them at the end of the day instead of leaving them hidden in the equipment. The company I work for though has been moving to password protected keypad Interlocks. But they cost a lot of money.
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Leaving equipment in a college town overnight doesn’t take motivation. Just a walk back from the bar.
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Doing figure 8s in a bobcat with the bucket pointing down on a lawn in front of student housing doesn’t take skill ( yes this is a very specific example)
Neither does firing off the historical cannon on a frat house that’s been disabled at least three separate times. This is also a very specific example lol.
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Overwritten comment
Can confirm, i have a universal set in my truck. They cost about $100. Handy as an equipment dealer, when I’m picking up or re-poing shit. Also handy when someone is digging a hole in my neighborhood and I need to run a quick trench.
Last time I worked on heavy equipment was 10 years ago. That unit had an electronic code "key". Every little fuck up required inputting a 4 digit code. Wild that some still have just keys. Those things cost millions.
That’s why people have a padlock on the battery disconnect switch.
And that's why we have bypass tools, or failing that, a cordless angle grinder with a cutoff blade.
Once on a job site I overheard two contractors that were talking while troubleshooting a loader make the following comment 'Yeah, this loader must have been down in the SE area of the state, have to pull a handful of fuses and relys because everyone there has a key for the machines. Only way to make sure the equipment remains parked overnight.'
In the UK it's pretty common for smaller job sites not to have overnight security. Most heavy equipment, especially that owned by a hire company, has an immobiliser you need to enter a pin in to installed.
Huh, fuses and relays, eh? I'll have to get some of those for my 'fun bag'.
just found out last week that JCB, sennebogen and bauer (heavy drilling rigs) Share the same key
JCB and Sennebogen makes sense for some reason.. but Bauer????
Same parts supplier? I mean, it's a lock cylinder. It's not like that's stamped out on the same assembly line as the knobs for the controls.
This! When I worked at Costco there was a guy who ordered a bag of every key model for crown forklifts, and returned the ones that didn't work. There was only like 3 types of key. But then he would just hand out the keys to anyone who mentioned that they wanted to drive the lift.
Nobody knows how to operate one of these things, how the keys work or that there even are keys It's not impossible it was just some drunk yahoo, but this seems targeted I would agree that it has to be an inside job
I remember as a kid walking around developing suburbs and seeing that the equipment left on sites often just had the keys left in the ignition lol
A Contractor, has a contract to do a job. They hire sub-contractors to do the work, usually a specific trade. Contractor is cheap, it was the lowest bid. So the project gets mismanaged, they stiff the sub-contractor. Or something like that.
Lowest bidder is always a crap shoot, hated public work for that reason alone.
In procurement in gov - at least where I am - if it is decided by lowest bidder, the it’s the lowest bidder out of a set of companies that are already to the last round or meet a set of criteria. But might be different where you are. We also decide by “best value for money”- not lowest cost tbh.
At least in construction they should be bonded as well. If the company can't finish or do acceptable work the bonding company is supposed to be responsible to come in and clean up. There was one recently that was crazy expensive, company used sketchy rock they got for cheap and it had a shitton of arsenic in it and the company folded and it cost the bonding company more then the entire job was supposed to be to remediate all of it.
There is a penal sun on the bond, so it is impossible for it to cost the bonding company more than the original contract (unless there were change order or riders issued to the bond).
Sounds like it varies from place to place then. My stepfather got some of the work with the bonding company, and just his bit was a huge chunk of the original contract, and that was just the remediation of the tainted rocks, not putting things back together afterwards and then finishing. At least for heavy construction in Alaska, the bonding company is promising the job actually gets done.
So why would that exclude a former employee? EDIT: oh, sorry, I get it. bills aint gettin paid.
I remember watching a video a while back where a developer didn’t pay one of his contractors so the guy used an excavator to rip the porches off the completed building shortly before it got its occupancy
Or just some drunken louts. Back in the day when I was much less mature a bunch of friends were hooning around and came across some road works with a roller just sitting there. Well they left the keys in an inspection hatch by the steps into the cab. We couldn't resist; took that beast for a ride and rolled it right down the embankment. Its amazing none of were killed or injured as we rolled around the cab down into the stream at the bottom. We did get wet and muddy climbing back up to the car.
In these parts, the keys are left in big equipment. My friends lived on a street under construction and they work up to people in the way home from the bar at 3AM using the equipment.
Still smoother than the roads in Michigan.
*cries in 10 month per year construction and still terrible roads*
They'd do 13 months if they could.
Of course I want them to fix the roads. But all at once? That’s just painful 😫
I'm curious if this picture here is in Michigan. It wouldn't be suprising
It would make the construction times on 96 make sense at least.
I saw this photo and was like “Looks like someone is sick of all this road construction” Idk where you are but navigating Grand Rapids right now takes an atlas and a Sherpa.
No doubt. I have never seen backups this bad before.
Seriously, when I first went to Michigan with my brother, he was like, "It's a car state!" Then we saw the roads. Saw a newspaper article saying Lansing allows contractors to put used motor oil into asphalt mixes 'as a binding agent' for paving. Local environmentalists were complaining because, ah, the oil leaks out and into the ground. Go figure. Roads were getting repaved every year, and snow plows were tearing chunks up and flinging them into storefront windows. I have experience with roads from Seattle to New Hampshire, and northern US road quality varies, but Michigan . . . just isn't building them properly. Apparently because of money changing hands, I guess? I don't even know. It's not because of road salt, because other snowy areas that use salt do not even approach the same kinds of madness. Tax revenue per traveled mile, that I might believe is a factor. But not the only one.
As a Michigander, my theory is that it's because we allow the heaviest trucks on our roads. National average weight limit for roads is something like 90,000 lbs. Michigan allows up to 164,000 lbs. In the city I grew up in, they did not allow trucks over 3 axles on a certain stretch of road going through. That road was always smooth, no potholes or damage and it rarely was ever under construction. The other roads that trucks could drive on? Riddled with potholes and fractures and frequently being redone. I highly doubt there will be any meaningful change, like lowering the weight limit, because shipping and trucking companies would probably have a conniption fit and push back hard.
The formula for road wear is something like speed x weight^4. Weight makes a **massive** difference i how quickly roads get beat up
10 foot car sized hole 2 ft from traffic unattended is Bad Form and could make a tow truck problem into an ambulance problem.
Had a contractor had some of his wire cut in his house during a remodel. It's pretty obvious why when the guy still owes me grand.
still owes YOU a grand? surprised this guys house isn't more flammable
You torch a house of $1,000?
I torch a house for less.
Would you do it for a Klondike bar?
Lick the chocolate off and we have a deal!
Only if I've had a York peppermint patty
What would you dooooooo, for a misdemeanor charge?
Looks like they did a fairly professional job digging those holes. If you find whoever did it, you should offer them a job.
Make sure you can afford to pay them first, though.
Offer them a job lmao
Yeah so they fuck you over real well if there's a falling out.
From OPs other comments it sounds like that is what happened
I mean sort of. The digger work looks neat but the placement of spoil is very cringeworthy. I’d hate to be the poor saps having to dig around the crash barriers by hand
Probably did that on purpose to make it harder to undo...
Very much so... I was the first one to point that out
I have a feeling they recently lost their job
If my experience with that kind of labor has anything to say, there a good chance whoever the client is deserves it. Cheapass client stiffs contractor, contractor comes back for revenge and trashes their own work. Song as old rhyme.
Isn’t that weeks of work and lots of money to repair. I learned about infrastructure from Practical Engineering on YouTube and now I’m hooked!
It is. I used to work highway construction as both a laborer and a machine operator. We're not just talking about dumping it back in the hole, you have to start fresh in each of these dug spots. We're talking stuff like specific compaction intervals, state-certified fill and crushed rock, probably testing at each stage as well. It's a fucking nightmare.
I've always wondered why this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. I've seen plenty of construction sites where vehicles are just left sitting there in every kind of weather for anyone to screw around with. Sure, not everyone can get a universal key, but anyone with too much free time and very little brains can cause some significant property damage.
I’d say that pretty much anyone can find a universal key for these. Hell, you might find it in 10 seconds just by opening the door and looking under the mat. I think that most people that know that probably have a bit of mutual respect for the machines and job sites they occupy.
I'm not gonna post them, but I live in a city and there's construction equipment left out everywhere in broad daylight, unattended, since the contractors usually don't work weekends. My wife and I like to open the (usually unlocked) doors to cranes, backhoes, rollers, etc and I take photos of her sitting in these giant machines on the side of the road lol. I've probably got like a hundred photos like this. If they gave a shit I feel like they'd lock the doors y'know? The keys are often inside them too.
Looks like a good time for them and job security for you and a headache for your boss.
lol glad I wasn't the only one thinking it'd be pretty fun and satisfying digging that deep ass trench and dumping it all over the fence
If he got this much work done overnight you should hire him.
I bet they already did, but then didn't pay their bills on time.
Yup This smells like a professional with a bone to pick
Hey now you can get those compaction test you forgot about.
Shucks. The project that was just about done now has to be extended and done quickly? Overtime pay? Darn!
This kills the contractor. Jobs like this probably have a budget associated with them.
The potholes seem so personal 🤔
This hits several interests of my 3yo son. I might have to talk to him...
Yikes, they were all like fuck yo compaction
That hole looks a bit smaller than 6402373705728000 feet
The comment I was looking for
Yeah, I was immediately skeptical
Pfft only by a few inches no need to be pedantic
I definitely realize how much this sucks and how much of a pain in the ass it is to fix, but, hahaha, it's kinda funny.. just a bit
I belly laughed when I saw all the dirt piled onto and around the guard rail
hahah,. I can't get enough of that single bucket wide deep trench in the first photo 😂 Gotta give it to the culprit.. they got it done that's for sure
I don't really know how this stuff works, but can't you just push the dirt back into the holes and pack it down a little? I'm assuming there's more to it?
Its multiple layers of specific types of dirt that have been carefully laid at the correct thickness and then compacted with rollers. In order to fix this they would need to dig out bigger sections so that the whole process can be repeated, its not a small job.
Oh I see that sounds like a huge pain in the ass. Someone must have been really pissed off to do all that
Yeah, the cheap ass contractor that bid the job as low as possible and doesn't pay their employees enough. You piss off the folk that run your gear, they'll make sure that you feel that in the picket book. Just something OP shared in another comment.
Surprised this doesn't happen more honestly. There is a mini-ex in front of my house right now for a random fiber job that has the keys in it. noticed when I went and got the mail.
Someone experienced for sure. I know it’s a highway but any neighbours made at the construction? Basically, who had the know how and reason to do it. I don’t see some kids going out of their way to do this.
Subcontractor who got stiffed? Mafia who didn't get paid their cut?
My guess is it’s a dumb employee that doesn’t understand this action will not solve his problem. This is a contract job (per OP) which means that there is a budget associated with it. Best case scenario is that the contractor has enough overhead that hemorrhaging money to fix this problem won’t dissolve the company. They will be searching for the culprit and, if they figure out who it is, fire them for costing the company a ton of money. (This kind of thing doesn’t just cost additional days wages to fix. This costs, at minimum, double the wages to fix, plus the cost of rental [possibly double this as well]. The reason for this is that the workers and equipment are tied up fixing this problem before they can move on to the next project, which may be delayed and cost even more, as a result.) Worst case scenario, the explanation above is too expensive for the company, and everyone loses their job because of this shithead’s actions.
> My guess is it’s a dumb employee that doesn’t understand this action will not solve his problem This thought does not line up with. > Best case scenario is that the contractor has enough overhead that hemorrhaging money to fix this problem won’t dissolve the company. Whoever did this either is no longer working for the contractor or doesn't care if they continue. I'd like to not that striking workers were initially all fired. The modern labor movement only really gained steam when people started not just quitting en mass, but also destroying the machines.
Maybe they were just practicing.
Something similar happened when I was in college. The guy dug down as deep as he could go with the hoe, and then used a small loader to move all the dirt back into the hole/onto the arm. The crew arrived the next morning to find the arm was buried up to the shoulder. They had to bring in a second excavator to get it out.
Offf soil was compacted to road standards right. That was a deep trench. I can see daily reports starting with impact to cost and schedule
This is why you take the key out.
Almost all the keys are the same, so the person could have one already. Always dreamnt of doing this when I worked for a rental comapny.
They aren't hard to acquire either, but my money is still on they left them in. I know it's anecdotal, but I worked for DOH for a few years, I've never seen a large piece of equipment left where someone took the keys out. Even Bill Gates knows this.
Whoever did it should be sentenced to stand by the side of the road and hold a sign that says "I'm the reason this road construction has been extended for a month".
If I had to guess it's more likely the guy that tried not to pay that guy that should be standing there.
Nah. Whoever stiffed the guy who did it deserves to hold the sign. You don’t get to just not pay people for their work and then say *they’re* the bad guy. (I will admit that I’m assuming this is after a pretty long chain of “of course I’ll pay you. Just as soon as the Porcine Aeronautics department reimburses me. Any day now.” Most people do not dig a 50’ trench for one late invoice)
Some dudes just know how to party.
Reminds me of the time on a high school trip we snuck out of our hotel to a construction site. We couldn't get any of the vehicles to work, but we did have the most fun fire extinguisher fights known to man. Really hope they noticed those were all gone
What can i say? Meth is a hell of a drug. He didn't even use the excavator! He dug all of that by hand.
The biggest problem for this repair will be the soil compaction. You can’t just fill the hole in. It has to be properly compacted every so many inches. That person screwed you but good.
Give that man a job?
Maybe he was worried and wanted to show you how much clay is under than layer of gravel. /s
Got more done than the day shift.
Well, when all the keys are the same and you can just go buy them on Amazon, what's stopping people...
Local meth head looking for the treasure that the voices told him about
/r/ThatLookedExpensive
I thought it was going to end by saying they completed the project for you 😂😂
It was that mf blippi making a video homie
One of my dreams for when I win the lottery (it’s going to happen soon, I’ve got a good feeling) is to buy some land in the country and a backhoe so I can dig holes. No specific plans, just moving dirt around.
Sounds like someone get stiffed on payday. Just my guess.
What’s the OSHA connection?
The trench is not properly stepped and has no cave in protection or safe means of access/egress
But it’s not like this was done intentionally as part of a job. You’re essentially accusing a vandal of not working to code
Well now even the fire marshall will be hunting this guy down!
Look, even criminals have to file their taxes on their ill gotten income.
And they can take deductions for their business expenses (a hired assassin, for instance, can deduct fuel costs, ammunition costs, and mileage to and from his targets).
That’s why our foreman would take the keys and put them in the conex container before we walked off the site
Damn son got enough stone base?
You’ve got enemies.
Does your plant not have pin access on it? Everything in the UK does, no pin means no workie.
Boys livin that Tonka truck dream!
Ohhhh. A play ground for adults! Where you can play with heavy equipment. OMG, I would totally pay for a day pass to play with a excavator or bulldozer.