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Weekly Debrief – November 11, 2023

As I was debriefing this past week (and really, much of this past month…), it occurred to me that I ought to consider sharing my personal “Lessons Learned” with the crew, thinking & hoping that […]

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October, 2023 Book Stack

If you’ve been paying attention to my book stacks (and OF COURSE you are….), you might have been able to detect a pattern in how I assemble what I’m choosing to read. I try to […]

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Who Is Going to Take My Place?

I had an opportunity to interact with a group of high school students and had a great time. The Illinois Tollway (who our company is working for) hosted the students to introduce them to all […]

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Survival in the Extremes

What a week! Our crew worked 24/7 assisting on a railroad yard cutover project during the Chicago-record-breaking heat. It was a challenge on both the mental & physical sides of the coin, but the work […]

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Foundations of a Leader in Construction

The world is flush with leadership right now. Leadership books. Leadership podcasts. Industry leaders. Corporate leaders. Governmental leaders. Leadership has gotten us where we are as a species. We wouldn’t be living in the world […]

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Being “The New Guy”

We’ve all been there. No matter how long you’ve been in construction, we all STILL go through it, no matter your age or level of experience. Every so often, it happens to us: We’re “The […]

Honoring Firefighters

FROM THE ARCHIVES

  • ARCHIVES

    Asking the Simple Question – The Solution

    In my previous article (CLICK HERE to read it), I described the maturation of a piling bearing capacity issue that we had on a recent railroad bridge project. Let’s dive into getting the issues resolved. [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    Asking the Simple Questions – The Problem

    “Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. It can even stifle someone’s sense of self-preservation. Often, the most difficult ego to [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    When Slopes Fail – Part 2

    In this, Part 2 of my series on slope stability & erosion control failures, I want to dissect another jobsite failure that one of our projects suffered through a couple of years ago. The conditions, [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    When Slopes Fail – Part 1

    There are some people I know, when talking about their “college days,” who can recite chapters & verses of classes they took. They can remember class numbers, people in the class, problems they solved, the [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    It’s More than a Line

    I wanted to write a post discussing a design issue that we encountered out here on our site. MicroStation, AutoCADD and the like are the daily tools of choice for almost all designers, and no [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    The Risk of Traffic – Final Chapter

    So as I’ve developed in the last 2 posts, traffic control on a construction project exposes just about everyone involved in the process to RISK. A motorcycle accident in 2008 sent me through the legal [...]
  • ARCHIVES

    The Risk of Traffic – Part 2

    As I developed in my last post, engineers in construction are often-times thrust into situations of RISK that, in many instances, are completely beyond their direct control. I’m going to take you on a tour [...]

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