Leaving construction equipment in a vulnerable spot

[Chris142]

The Mojave river goes right past my place. It's normally dry sand on top but has flowed water and has even over flowed it's banks on occasion.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojave_River

It it where my failing well gets it's water from.

A construction company has been putting in a pipe along a road that crosses the mojave river.

They have dug a hole using an excavator. You can see the excavator in the hole in one of the pics I just took .

You can also see thunder and rain clouds in the west along the San Gabriel mountains.

You can also see those same type of clouds popping up on the east. Well south east really.

If it rains and is enough rain to cause a flash flood that could run down from both of those areas they would meet at the head of the Mojave river then flow down stream above ground.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[dishdude]

That's what insurance is for.

 

[AZjeff]

How close are you to the river channel?

 

[Chris142]

How close are you to the river channel?

1 mile. It's the light colored sand from left to right

 

[SC Maintenance]

That's what insurance is for.

The contractor likely has liability insurance, but comprehensive for a piece of equipment - that has to be monumentally expensive. Might not cover flood either. Commercial insurance is nothing like highly regulated consumer insurance.

 

[oldcodger]

I worked on a job where the city was having a large box culvert installed for handling a small creek. The contractor had lowered a small crawler dozer into the channel to help with grading. The area was hit with thunder storm which raised the water level about 15 feet. The dozer was completely covered for about 72 hours. They used a crane to lift the dozer from the creek and placed it on a trailer. It went to a shop and three days later it was back on the job operating normally. Foreman told me they drained and flushed out all lubes and fuel. Power washed the mud off. Used air compressor to dry everything. Removed the injectors and cranked the motor over to blow the water out. Replaced all filters, added fresh fuel and lubes and it was ready to go. I am sure the experience shortened the operating life of the machine but I was amazed.

 

[Hall]

It's normally dry sand on top but has flowed water and has even over flowed it's banks on occasion.

Something tells me they know the same thing and aren't too concerned.

 

[Carmudgeon]

Finding yard space is usually one of the biggest hassles of any job. Anywhere you can leave the equipment without p*ssing someone off, or having it damaged or stolen are the top two priorities.

Mother Nature might decide to teach these guys a lesson, but this is a walk in the park compared to trying to put stuff in the middle of a busy city.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Something tells me they know the same thing and aren't too concerned.

Or the operator parking it is not the guy that owns it.

 

[02SE]

I worked on a job where the city was having a large box culvert installed for handling a small creek. The contractor had lowered a small crawler dozer into the channel to help with grading. The area was hit with thunder storm which raised the water level about 15 feet. The dozer was completely covered for about 72 hours. They used a crane to lift the dozer from the creek and placed it on a trailer. It went to a shop and three days later it was back on the job operating normally. Foreman told me they drained and flushed out all lubes and fuel. Power washed the mud off. Used air compressor to dry everything. Removed the injectors and cranked the motor over to blow the water out. Replaced all filters, added fresh fuel and lubes and it was ready to go. I am sure the experience shortened the operating life of the machine but I was amazed.

Meh, @GON does that with salvage flood vehicles to keep us entertained.

 

[PF52]

Finding yard space is usually one of the biggest hassles of any job. Anywhere you can leave the equipment without p*ssing someone off, or having it damaged or stolen are the top two priorities.

A funny story: There is (or used to be) an excavating contractor in my area and he apparently had very little yard space to store his machines in-between jobs. So he'd just leave them at various jobsites where they had been used last, either right there on the site or maybe way out at the extreme edge where there's nothing but weeds. Sometimes they would sit there for many months. In theory he'd start a new job so he'd come and get the machines before they got too much in the way, but we used to always laugh that most likely there's an old dozer or backhoe parked somewhere that the guy just totally forget about, rusting away with windows and lights broken....

 

[Carmudgeon]

A funny story: There is (or used to be) an excavating contractor in my area and he apparently had very little yard space to store his machines in-between jobs. So he'd just leave them at various jobsites where they had been used last, either right there on the site or maybe way out at the extreme edge where there's nothing but weeds. Sometimes they would sit there for many months. In theory he'd start a new job so he'd come and get the machines before they got too much in the way, but we used to always laugh that most likely there's an old dozer or backhoe parked somewhere that the guy just totally forget about, rusting away with windows and lights broken....

We had that happen unintentionally, when the crew would leave something behind. But random smaller stuff.

It would usually begin with a perturbed phone call asking why we left our junk behind, followed by dispatching someone to retrieve it.

 

[dogememe]

They’ve been doing construction on the highway through town here and the other night one of the guys came in for a couple group 31s. Guess someone stole them out of their big construction machine thingy. I noticed they just leave them out next to the on ramps and had wondered about exactly that. Turns out I was right lol.

 

[Chris142]

They’ve been doing construction on the highway through town here and the other night one of the guys came in for a couple group 31s. Guess someone stole them out of their big construction machine thingy. I noticed they just leave them out next to the on ramps and had wondered about exactly that. Turns out I was right lol.

That's a daily thing. When I worked for a construction company and batteries that can't be secured must be removed every night. Even the secure ones were not always safe. Padlocks get cut off

Had 2 giant 4D batteries in a huge excavator get stolen along with the cables cut. The batteries were about 3 ft down in a hole on that machine and I had to use the crane on the service truck to lower the new ones down.

 

[Chris142]

Update: we'll it happened. The river flooded. Not as detrimental as I thought it would be. But someone had to canoe out to the equipment and drive them out. There was also some pieces I assume to the bridge and a crane they had to rescue.

Whole job is on hold until the river stops.

 

[mk378]

Going out into flood water is often fatal. No way I'm doing it to retrieve some inanimate thing that isn't even mine.

 

[andrew_j]

I was amazed as a kid they left key in or no key on skidders behind our house a bit into woods. Older brothers friends figured out how to drive them.