Traveling Circus

 I often joke that my  life is like a  traveling circus due to the random nature of the places that I am sent to work.  I follow the specialized contractors that work on the stuff that keeps the lights on, water flowing and trashed picked up around to make sure that the stuff they are building or working on meets the design and specifications created by the engineers. Sometimes the manpower that the job requires is specialized  and the contractors bring in an established workforce that they have trained and nurtured over the course of many years and many projects. In other cases the contractors bring in their supervision and hire locally. This is often the case when the general contractor is a regional contractor and may not have manpower in the area where the work is happening.

Right now the project that I am working on requires the latter. This crew was brought in because they are one of the best. They are in the process of finishing up the earthwork for the one of the first nuclear plants to be brought online since the 70's and at one time had 500 employee's working 24 hours a day to complete the foundation work for the site. These guys are a different breed. I have a project manager, safety manager and project engineer from South Carolina, a superintendent from Alabama and a general foreman from Georgia. For the older guys it means telling your wife you love her and getting on the road Sunday morning to make the 7am Monday call and maybe a round of golf or some fishing once you get to where you are going. For the younger guys it means a late night or early morning drive after one last kiss to your favorite girl or one more story before bed time. If a man home schools his children then they come with and the family stays together and get to explore whatever random place that that gets stationed. It is a tough life, but the men are well compensated. It something that gets in your blood and many don't quit traveling until they are ready to retire.

Once the contract is in place and the job starts then the contractor is faced with a whole new set of challenges. In the case of my project the contractor must meet  with the client to learn of the project expectations, meet with  craft unions who assigns manpower and meet with local vendors to get materials delivered. And then dirt gets moved, pipes get laid, concrete gets poured and asphalt gets installed so that a new piece of infrastructure is born from an open field or crowded spot in a existing plant so that you can turn on your lights, flush your toilet or have your garbage magically disappear from the curb.

Once the project is complete the traveling circus packs up heads to where ever the project estimators have nailed the numbers and the whole process starts over again. Throughout  the journey relationships and memories were created that will be shared over and over through time whether it be additional work at the site or shared over a cup of coffee while leaning on the tailgate and swapping war stories.