Week 11 – MPG – Milkey

Yet another eventful week at MPG, not only in Milford but out in Romulus as well! On Tuesday we had a severe water main break which consumed most of the day working out logistics, it all started out early in the morning with a phone call from my mentor bringing me up to speed on the break since it started at 3am. Both John and Paul our main site lead were down in Romulus dealing with it hands on so that left me at the office filing for the emergency PDPM request, working on the quote, and looking through old files for information regarding signage and other things that were effected. It was a very action packed day and I got a real taste of doing things on my own without having someone on site to help me. It was a great experience and it added fuel to the fire to continue this as a career.
Fast forward to Thursday when I went down to Romulus and checked out the action for myself. What a mess! The pipe fitter was there and he was telling us about the difficulties they have had with the repairs. He suggested that an estimated 4,000 gallons per minute of water came gushing out of the broken pipe. The pictures below clearly show the damage that water can cause. Pushing not only sand and dirt out of the way but swallowing concrete walk ways, signage, and part of the covered overhang for the visitor entrance. The damage expanded into the building with water damage to the walls and insulation inside. This large water main break will be more than an estimate $100,000 to fix!
 

A photo of the PIV replacement. the large pour of concrete is the thrust block which is at the end of the “T” coming out of the building. Shoring was put into place along the sides because of the depth of the excavation.

The Concrete from the walkway fell into the hole and was destroyed during the line break.

the front yard was also destroyed with water, sand, dirt, and rocks. it was estimated at the time of the break 4,000 gallons per minute of water was blowing out.

A large pile of spoils was created during the project. some of the spoils were able to be reused while the waste was hauled to the back of the site and spread out along the landscape.

In spots 6-8″ of build up was washed onto the grass. All of this spoils had to be scraped and raked back into place in order to restore the grass.
 
On Friday, The Build-U interns took a trip to Detroit to help Ideal Setech celebrate their 2016 GM Supplier of The Year award. It was a good time had by all, as there was a taco truck for lunch, a brief presentation and speech regarding the awards, and then ice cream and festive authentic Mexican dancing at the end. The dancing was intriguing as they highlighted different styles and techniques of dancing as they “Traveled around Mexico”.
 
As for my usual Hawaiian shirt update… I had to have a small pause in my saga as wearing a Hawaiian shirt to the company celebration probably would not be to appropriate. HOWEVER, I do think when Ideal contracting hopefully wins the award next year I will definitely be putting “Hawaiian shirt party” in as a suggestion for the celebration theme.
This upcoming week is going to be another busy one. Dylan, Clay and I will be interviewing Nick Luxon on Tuesday, Flint site tour on Wednesday, Staff meeting on Thursday, and Volunteer day on Friday.   I really do enjoy all the opportunities that Ideal has to offer. In comparison with a friend from school who is interning at a different company, Ideal truly offers a broad spectrum of experiences and knowledge from the Build-U program. I have really enjoyed the ride so far and I look forward to more as the summer continues!
 
Until next time,
Andrew Milkey