Vent: A job in Spokane made me rethink my whole pre-lift check

I was setting up a 150-ton crane on a site near the river last fall. The ground looked solid, just some packed dirt and gravel. I did my normal walk around, checked the outriggers, everything seemed fine. But when I started to lift a concrete panel, the whole rig shifted maybe two inches to the left. My spotter yelled and I stopped right away. Turns out there was an old, soft sewer line buried about three feet down that the site plans missed. Now I always ask for a ground survey report before I even roll onto a new site, no matter what the foreman says. Has anyone else had a close call because of bad ground info?

3 comments

3 Comments

noah3262mo ago

Honestly, that bit about the old sewer line is wild. Tbh I gotta ask, did the ground actually feel different when you walked on it, or was it totally solid right up until it moved? That's the kind of thing that would mess with my head after.

chen.jade2mo ago

Yeah @noah326, my buddy said it felt totally normal, just a little springy like old grass. Then his whole foot just sank six inches straight down, it was NUTS.

beth_mitchell12d ago

That's the thing about living in older neighborhoods, isn't it? You just never know what's lurking under a nice layer of topsoil. Like my neighbor had this patch of grass that looked totally perfect, lush and green, but it was basically floating over an old cistern nobody knew about. One summer BBQ and his grill just vanished, lmao. It's wild how much hidden infrastructure is under us all the time, old wells, forgotten septic tanks, buried foundations from houses that were there a hundred years ago. Makes you wonder what else is just waiting to sink under your weight.