Hello Again Dearest Reader,
I'm having to switch to a new post because the old one had gotten too long for the program to be happy.
CDOT speaker continued
I70 expansion,
Construction begins early 2018 for the i25 to chambers trenching
Westbound express lane in the mountains begins soon
Eventually express lanes between FoCo and Denver, starting at each end and working towards the middle
He wants to expand the highways as needed and if the state and the taxpayers pony's up the cash then he'll build as much as he can
It's our responsibility to turn over a system to our kids that's better than we found it
1:20
James Ecklund
Colorado Water and why you should care
Water is light years ahead and behind of transportation
How we're ahead
- Headwaters state
- regional round tables put together basic implementation plans
Friday, January 27, 2017
Live blogging annual CCA Conference
Good Morning Dearest Reader,
Welcome to my live blogging of the 84th Annual CCA Conference in Westminster
Key note speaker
8:35
Changing trends in OSHA. OSHA has been transitioning from action specific to programmatic regulation. Their goal is to interpret the code to get your money. The official company program has to be safety oriented, there need to be official fully documented company trainings with all the bases covered. All your training needs to be fully recorded, stuck to a fixed schedule, sign in sheets, and no ambiguity. Safety is about overall company policy.
Run from all liability
8:50
Republican presidents when they come into office they reduce funding for OSHA without shrinking the department. As a result citations increase to feed the machine and offset lost revenue.
Your safety committees need to actually work. Treat your people good and they'll comply with safety rules. Buy your workers pizza, let them know they're appreciated. Care about your workers and they'll do what you want. Involve everyone and keep everyone engaged and active. If everybody is enfranchised and actively care about what they do, safety will follow
9:15
PDAC
Plan
Decide
Act
Check
In all you do, do these things. Listen, Learn, and Lead. Convince your workers that you actually do care about them.
Effectively, in my own words, read a Dale Carnegie book
12:30
Speaker of the Colorado House. The population is growing and the state transportation infrastructure needs to grow to catch up. Gas taxes have not been updated since 1991 and as such funding has fallen and the infrastructure has suffered. I can't see her hands, not the best body language. Comprehensive plan needs to be developed to address colorado's transportation needs.
12:45
President of the Colorado Senate. The CCA is an important infrastructure advocacy group in the state.
How do we show good faith towards the taxpayer? How can we best prioritize funds for projects and programs to suit the needs of Colorado? We want to change housing and construction statutes so that more condos and multi-family dwellings can be built. This would allow for entry level housing to be built in the metro area to ease burdens on the rental market.
12:55
The Senate President was very short (Verbally not Physically). The Director of CDOT. The purpose of CDOT, to save lives and make lives better by proving freedom, connection, and experience through travel.
A 10% decrease in traffic congestion results in a 1% increase in economic productivity.
Almost 9 Billion dollars in unfunded highway projects.
2.5 billion in high priority projects
SB 228, senate bill allocating funds, less than 200 million allocated
72% of funding for transportation comes from federal government
Per capita transportation expenditures have decreased by half since 1991.
8i7
Welcome to my live blogging of the 84th Annual CCA Conference in Westminster
Key note speaker
8:35
Changing trends in OSHA. OSHA has been transitioning from action specific to programmatic regulation. Their goal is to interpret the code to get your money. The official company program has to be safety oriented, there need to be official fully documented company trainings with all the bases covered. All your training needs to be fully recorded, stuck to a fixed schedule, sign in sheets, and no ambiguity. Safety is about overall company policy.
Run from all liability
8:50
Republican presidents when they come into office they reduce funding for OSHA without shrinking the department. As a result citations increase to feed the machine and offset lost revenue.
Your safety committees need to actually work. Treat your people good and they'll comply with safety rules. Buy your workers pizza, let them know they're appreciated. Care about your workers and they'll do what you want. Involve everyone and keep everyone engaged and active. If everybody is enfranchised and actively care about what they do, safety will follow
9:15
PDAC
Plan
Decide
Act
Check
In all you do, do these things. Listen, Learn, and Lead. Convince your workers that you actually do care about them.
Effectively, in my own words, read a Dale Carnegie book
12:30
Speaker of the Colorado House. The population is growing and the state transportation infrastructure needs to grow to catch up. Gas taxes have not been updated since 1991 and as such funding has fallen and the infrastructure has suffered. I can't see her hands, not the best body language. Comprehensive plan needs to be developed to address colorado's transportation needs.
12:45
President of the Colorado Senate. The CCA is an important infrastructure advocacy group in the state.
How do we show good faith towards the taxpayer? How can we best prioritize funds for projects and programs to suit the needs of Colorado? We want to change housing and construction statutes so that more condos and multi-family dwellings can be built. This would allow for entry level housing to be built in the metro area to ease burdens on the rental market.
12:55
The Senate President was very short (Verbally not Physically). The Director of CDOT. The purpose of CDOT, to save lives and make lives better by proving freedom, connection, and experience through travel.
A 10% decrease in traffic congestion results in a 1% increase in economic productivity.
Almost 9 Billion dollars in unfunded highway projects.
2.5 billion in high priority projects
SB 228, senate bill allocating funds, less than 200 million allocated
72% of funding for transportation comes from federal government
Per capita transportation expenditures have decreased by half since 1991.
8i7
Monday, January 23, 2017
3-900 compulsory blog post
Hello Again Dearest Reader,
Due to unfortunate illness I was unable to be in class last Wednesday so I have yet to do the network by hand however here is my poor attempt at doing on in project
I am by no means proficient in Microsoft Project at this time however I hope this improves. I would say this network is reasonably sensitive. There's more than one prescribed course path to get a degree but its still pretty restricted.
As to the addition of corequisites, I would say that I would first try to become more proficient in project so I can utilize the tools available to me.
Hand made v. Computer Generated Schedule, I prefer hand made at this point. I'm not familiar enough to be comfortable using scheduling programs yet. My preferred technique for project scheduling is getting the relevant people around a table and using a white board to get everybody on the same page and figure out when stuff needs to be done.
My biggest takeaways from today's readings really were understanding prerequisites in scheduling. Construction management honestly seems like glorified cat herding with various disparate contractors and subcontractors making sure that at no time the cart is put before the horse.
I think the litigious nature of construction is somewhat of an annoyance that will continue into the future. As costs, particularly labor and insurance, continue to rise delays will become costlier and as such people will have even more impetus for pursuing compensation through legal action
Due to unfortunate illness I was unable to be in class last Wednesday so I have yet to do the network by hand however here is my poor attempt at doing on in project
I am by no means proficient in Microsoft Project at this time however I hope this improves. I would say this network is reasonably sensitive. There's more than one prescribed course path to get a degree but its still pretty restricted.
As to the addition of corequisites, I would say that I would first try to become more proficient in project so I can utilize the tools available to me.
Hand made v. Computer Generated Schedule, I prefer hand made at this point. I'm not familiar enough to be comfortable using scheduling programs yet. My preferred technique for project scheduling is getting the relevant people around a table and using a white board to get everybody on the same page and figure out when stuff needs to be done.
My biggest takeaways from today's readings really were understanding prerequisites in scheduling. Construction management honestly seems like glorified cat herding with various disparate contractors and subcontractors making sure that at no time the cart is put before the horse.
I think the litigious nature of construction is somewhat of an annoyance that will continue into the future. As costs, particularly labor and insurance, continue to rise delays will become costlier and as such people will have even more impetus for pursuing compensation through legal action
Como Turntable Progress
Dearest Reader,
Last week I met with the former owner of the Como Roundhouse, Mr. Bill Kazel, and we discussed the reconstruction of the turntable. While he has sold the roundhouse and adjoining property to its current owner he is still heavily involved with the restoration. He gave me a number of wonderful drawings that he and a few others had done over the years.
The turntable presents many interesting challenges considering it is probably from the 1880's. The table that is currently there is believed to be the table that was removed in 1910 when the pit was lined with concrete. The sides of the turntable bridge were separated at some point and the bridge side frames were used as a structural component in a building in downtown Denver for some time. During the reconstruction of the Georgetown Loop RR the building was torn down and somebody recognized it as a turntable. Initially it was thought to be the Georgetown turntable. However upon further investigation it was discovered to be the Como Turntable, being of a different style than the Georgetown one. In the middle of that the turntable side frames were rejoined by the Sea Bee's rebuilding the railroad. However when they did that they made it about a foot wider than it had originally been, luckily it will still fit in the pit comfortably.
The biggest challenge in the reconstruction of the turntable is the mounting of the bridge to the pivot. The pivot that is being used is of a different style than used originally and there are few signs of how the pivot mounted in the table are left in the bridge. So a new design will need to be made. Also to be considered is the material and construction of the bridge. The bridge is most likely iron or very poor grade steel. Being constructed in the late 19th century in the West it is very likely that it is iron, and therefore cannot be reliably welded. The original side frames are riveted together with the cross members from the 1970's reassembly bolted in place. In thinking about this the mounting plate connection for the pivot will be bolted in place. It would appear to the that the original mounting bracket was riveted into the side frame at a joint judging by the existing torched material. At this time we will probably torch out some of the rivets at the connection point then bolt the pivot mounting bracket in there. If necessary for historical accuracy the exposed heads of the bolts may be riveted over
As well Bill and I discussed some of the parameters for turntable construction and improvements. To keep with the historic nature of the site and keep modern safety considerations in mind, reconstruciton is done to an aesthetically pleasing but functionally safe standard. For example the new locking mechanism to lock the turntable to the tracks will be moved outside the rails to eliminate the need for someone to be in the gauge to lock the turntable. As well the new turntable arms will be made of steel and made to look like wood in all likelihood. Wooden arms are nice but they can break and require more maintenance.
Last week I met with the former owner of the Como Roundhouse, Mr. Bill Kazel, and we discussed the reconstruction of the turntable. While he has sold the roundhouse and adjoining property to its current owner he is still heavily involved with the restoration. He gave me a number of wonderful drawings that he and a few others had done over the years.
The turntable presents many interesting challenges considering it is probably from the 1880's. The table that is currently there is believed to be the table that was removed in 1910 when the pit was lined with concrete. The sides of the turntable bridge were separated at some point and the bridge side frames were used as a structural component in a building in downtown Denver for some time. During the reconstruction of the Georgetown Loop RR the building was torn down and somebody recognized it as a turntable. Initially it was thought to be the Georgetown turntable. However upon further investigation it was discovered to be the Como Turntable, being of a different style than the Georgetown one. In the middle of that the turntable side frames were rejoined by the Sea Bee's rebuilding the railroad. However when they did that they made it about a foot wider than it had originally been, luckily it will still fit in the pit comfortably.
The biggest challenge in the reconstruction of the turntable is the mounting of the bridge to the pivot. The pivot that is being used is of a different style than used originally and there are few signs of how the pivot mounted in the table are left in the bridge. So a new design will need to be made. Also to be considered is the material and construction of the bridge. The bridge is most likely iron or very poor grade steel. Being constructed in the late 19th century in the West it is very likely that it is iron, and therefore cannot be reliably welded. The original side frames are riveted together with the cross members from the 1970's reassembly bolted in place. In thinking about this the mounting plate connection for the pivot will be bolted in place. It would appear to the that the original mounting bracket was riveted into the side frame at a joint judging by the existing torched material. At this time we will probably torch out some of the rivets at the connection point then bolt the pivot mounting bracket in there. If necessary for historical accuracy the exposed heads of the bolts may be riveted over
As well Bill and I discussed some of the parameters for turntable construction and improvements. To keep with the historic nature of the site and keep modern safety considerations in mind, reconstruciton is done to an aesthetically pleasing but functionally safe standard. For example the new locking mechanism to lock the turntable to the tracks will be moved outside the rails to eliminate the need for someone to be in the gauge to lock the turntable. As well the new turntable arms will be made of steel and made to look like wood in all likelihood. Wooden arms are nice but they can break and require more maintenance.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Reflections on reading technique and project scheduling
My Dearest Reader,
I hope a degree of levity is appreciated in these postings as I greatly enjoy it.
The SQ3R reading technique is interesting. I've never had it explicitly stated that way but I have found for many years that I've gotten in the habit of doing it without realizing it. When I read, if it is something of substance that I care to take interest in, I will read it, write questions and comments in the margins, and when I find a puzzling passage I will often read it out loud and try to rephrase it in my own words. My high school was heavy in the humanities and I was regularly required to read well over a thousand pages of text every semester if not several thousand. I tend to read histories, biographies, and theologies in my spare time which does required a bit of adjustment in reading practice compared to more technical texts.
The reading on scheduling was interesting. The thing it reminded me the most of was limiting reactants in chemistry. A project schedule can be viewed as a series of chemical reactions dependent upon their predecessors for continuation. Taking this to a real life example, when I was taught how to restore historic wooden railroad equipment I was taught to fix the frame and running gear first, then go to the roof, then deal with the body of the car, and finally the interior trimmings. You could have the best body and roof every built on a car, but if the frame of the car is garbage all the work that was done will be ruined in a few years.
I find that I myself am susceptible to imposter syndrome. I try to maintain a growth mindset as much as possible towards intellectual pursuits.
I hope a degree of levity is appreciated in these postings as I greatly enjoy it.
The SQ3R reading technique is interesting. I've never had it explicitly stated that way but I have found for many years that I've gotten in the habit of doing it without realizing it. When I read, if it is something of substance that I care to take interest in, I will read it, write questions and comments in the margins, and when I find a puzzling passage I will often read it out loud and try to rephrase it in my own words. My high school was heavy in the humanities and I was regularly required to read well over a thousand pages of text every semester if not several thousand. I tend to read histories, biographies, and theologies in my spare time which does required a bit of adjustment in reading practice compared to more technical texts.
The reading on scheduling was interesting. The thing it reminded me the most of was limiting reactants in chemistry. A project schedule can be viewed as a series of chemical reactions dependent upon their predecessors for continuation. Taking this to a real life example, when I was taught how to restore historic wooden railroad equipment I was taught to fix the frame and running gear first, then go to the roof, then deal with the body of the car, and finally the interior trimmings. You could have the best body and roof every built on a car, but if the frame of the car is garbage all the work that was done will be ruined in a few years.
I find that I myself am susceptible to imposter syndrome. I try to maintain a growth mindset as much as possible towards intellectual pursuits.
First Post for Construction Engineering
Construction Engineering, preconceptions and learning outcomes
What do I think construction engineering is? I think construction engineering is the shepherding of a design from paper to reality. It requires two commonly divergent qualities, a proficient technical background and ability to communicate with many different groups.
A good construction engineer must be able to understand from a technical perspective what is being done and be able to see if any gross errors have been made. As well he or she must be able to properly assess and handle whatever unexpected technical problems that arise, i.e. a pipe where there wasn't supposed to be one or how do we get the generator into the basement after we poured the first floor.
As well a good construction engineer is a good manager and communicator. He or she must have a decent idea of what is going on at all times and how all these things interact. Like a conductor in a symphony directing the orchestra the construction engineer oversees the craftsmen in their trades. The engineers job is to make sure that all relevant parties are on the same page at all times and their actions compliment not conflict each other.
I want to go into construction engineering for my career, or at least initially. I want to learn from a classroom perspective how to be a better construction engineer and manager. As for first impressions, I find the flipped classroom refreshing and engaging. This is not a class I will be falling asleep in.
Welcome to the 14th Street Backshop
Hi Everybody!
So you may be wondering why does this exist and why am I sharing my often rambling thoughts and creations with the world. Long story short this blog serves two purposes. For my construction engineering class I need to have a blog and also I will be documenting my engineering work on the Como Turntable with it! So welcome to a world of required coursework intertwined with antiquated engineering acts (mild alliteration is a habit sorry)
Why is it called the 14th Street Backshop? In railroading a backshop is where major maintenance goes on. Typically it is a shop in back of the roundhouse or in back of something, ere go the name. We persons of a railroad persuasion are a creative bunch. The 14th Street comes from my address, I live on 14th street, again with that whole being creative thing.
Welcome, welcome all. If you are a construction engineering student engaged in coursework or a railfan looking at my work, welcome.
Leighton Moreland
So you may be wondering why does this exist and why am I sharing my often rambling thoughts and creations with the world. Long story short this blog serves two purposes. For my construction engineering class I need to have a blog and also I will be documenting my engineering work on the Como Turntable with it! So welcome to a world of required coursework intertwined with antiquated engineering acts (mild alliteration is a habit sorry)
Why is it called the 14th Street Backshop? In railroading a backshop is where major maintenance goes on. Typically it is a shop in back of the roundhouse or in back of something, ere go the name. We persons of a railroad persuasion are a creative bunch. The 14th Street comes from my address, I live on 14th street, again with that whole being creative thing.
Welcome, welcome all. If you are a construction engineering student engaged in coursework or a railfan looking at my work, welcome.
Leighton Moreland
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