HEAVY CONSTRUCTION of a Sewage Pump Station - Ep 3
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- Опубліковано 25 вер 2023
- I'm on location to document the construction of a new wastewater lift station!
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Practical Construction Playlist: • Practical Construction
This is the third episode of a five-part pilot series to gauge your interest in "How It's Made"-esque heavy construction videos, so let me know what you think! Got an idea for an episode? Share it here: practical.engineering/location
Huge thanks to our project partners!
Owner: San Antonio River Authority (@SanAntonioRiver)
Engineer: Utility Engineering Group
General Contractor: MGC Contractors (@mgccontractors3304)
Practical Construction is a UA-cam channel dedicated to the built environment. The show builds on the success of @PracticalEngineeringChannel , one of the largest engineering channels on UA-cam, with more than 3 million subscribers and monthly viewership in the millions. Hosted and produced by civil engineer Grady Hillhouse, Practical Construction videos provide thoughtful and engaging explanations of how the world is built (and maintained) around us.
Credits:
Created by Grady Hillhouse
Edited by Wesley Crump
Camera Operator Josh Lorenz
Script Editing by Ralph Crewe
Graphics by Max Moser
Music by Donovan Bullen
Color Correction and Blurring by the Nebula Studios team
Some music from Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/creator
Networks never understood that there is a massive audience who don’t care about crew drama, but who watch just to see things being built. We want to know all the details!
Yeah, but we're not the least common denominator. And the advertisers prefer the soft mindless targets that are the LCD.
@@JCWrenHow It's Made has a viewership of circa 300k (WSJ, 2014). As of now, this episode has 200k views on YT alone. Sure that is out of a global (8B) not US (330M) market, but it does indicate serious potential.
Next week: Sparks fly when somebody borrows Cody's pipe wrench and puts it back upside-down.
Agreed. Gold rush was ruined for me when they started adding the wrong sounds over equipment. I could deal with some of the fake drama but the incorrect sounds played over heavy equipment did it for me.
You'd like This Old House (the original run)
This is basically How It's Made, but for construction. I seriously hope that you get to expand it into a full series for multiple forms of construction, Grady.
Agreed. This has good explanations, but without any complicated trade labels.
Same music too ;)
The remote controlled trench roller is one of the cutest construction equipment I've ever seen. We should give him a name.
Trenchy McTrench Face :)
I was in a department store during a remodel, and they had a tiny excavator in the same scale as the trench roller.
I wonder how often it tips over.
Rumblerunt
@@PracticalEngineeringChannel The Doodle Bug. :-)
Never thought there would be a cliffhanger on a sewage pump station, yet here we are. Love this series
Lol for real though!
As an industrial electrician that has installed the pumps on these sort of stations, I find the civil side very interesting and you've done a great job on this series.
I'm having trouble believing they cut those slabs without hitting any electrical conduits. I didn't think such a thing was possible.
Your part comes in episode 5!
@@PracticalEngineeringChannel I can't wait to turn up with a cable a meter too short to fit on the current cable ways and wire the pump in the wrong rotation!
@@larrycarlson3088 heh. I was on an undergrounding project and the foreman ordered the cables the exact length of the conduits.
@@kenbrown2808Sounds like a solid plan to me, copper is expensive after all, you wouldn't want to waste any of it :D
The caution tape they laid over the pipe has an additional important use you didn't mention. It's metallic, meaning you can trace the plastic pipe above ground with a metal detector without having to blindly dig around to find it
Not as useful below a reinforced concrete slab, but good point!
Still not good enough, all plastic pipes should require a tracer wire
@@Drewdayz2419 not in disagreement, simply pointing out why what's shown is the way it is. People might wonder why it's shiny
Is it just me or do the responses to your well-intentioned interesting factoid seem kind of passive aggressive or combative?
@@skivvy3565we aren't professional writers. Just a bunch of construction workers sitting on the can.
The warning tape is important and the tracking function was left out.
Seriously this reminds me of the kind of content I would get from discovery channel as a kid... but in a format where you can take your time with every part of the process. Love it!
Also, Discovery Channel has not done anything like this in 20 years...
@@57thornsI also remember discovery channel being like this as a kid. There's people of all kinds of ages on UA-cam!
It totally reminds me of old-school discovery too.
I used to love coming home from school and turning on Discovery and the Science Channel to watch shows like this, I found them more interesting than much of what id learnt that day at school. I don't think I've really watched anything on discovery for the past 5-8 years since most of it is either reruns or reality TV. So thankful that Grady allows us to continue learning about things we never knew we needed to know and makes it interesting.
@@joshgilpin Same here, except it was in the 1990s and "school" was university. And I did enjoy the subjects I studied as well. 🙂
These videos have been so entertaining. Please try to keep this series going!
Agreed. My inner child is very happy watching construction from start to finish and finally understanding what is going on! 😁
YES I love this
I agree these are great
Holes of San Antonio Inc is an incredible company name, so straight to the point
I mean... I could also be an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT kind of business... LOL
Engineer in North Dakota. Very interesting the different means and methods across the country! Never heard of not casting boots to the lift station. Always have the precast do those! Also never seen flowable fill for that, usually just compacted suitable fill. Very enjoyable series!
After watching Ep 4 on nebula, I'm interested to see if you're going to have similar comment for the next video... #nospoilers
Really cool seeing the comments from those in the field, and how everyone does things differently!
ND and MN PE here. It's really cool what you can get away with when you don't have frost susceptible soils. I was also shocked at the I&I that was entering, those pipes should seal better than that.
High quality and in-depth, but straight to the point. Great series.
Are you talking about the video or the pipes?
@@joaquinmuniz9963 Pipes, obviously ;)
They really know how to conduct their business.
In simcity, water treatment connections only take a few clicks. These three videos really showcase how complicated civil engineering can be and how out-of-sight it is to our daily lives.
city builders are often far from simulation. They are gestion/puzzle games. Otherwise they would include induced demand and other real-world mechanics that leads the player to make proper urban planning. Ironically, those with a non-contemporary theme are those forcing players to create mixed-zoning.
@@PainterVierax I wonder with the current hardware and the popularity of sim games like farm sim, trucking sims and kerbal space program, a civil engineering sim would be too far fetched an idea.
There's probably as much complexity in building a freeway as there is building a space station.
@@stevens9625 I've never played farm or truck sims but I can imagine they simplify and gamify a bit. Otherwise they won't be categorized as videogames. For a more obvious example, look at the difference between games about making art (painting, music, etc.) and proper creative tools.
Kerbal is kind of an oddity, without crowd founding and the massive eager for a theme like space this game would never be a reality.
After all, people like their games. They don't want to feel like it's real work, by making maths, waiting for stuffs, etc.
I'm not entirely sure about the complexity of building a freeway but It can't be as engineering intensive as a space station or even a plane. There is much more tolerance to imperfections and rectifications for the former.
@@PainterVieraxI think you underestimate what some people can consider fun in a video game.
Sure a game like that wouldn’t have mass appeal, but there’s far more than just a few people who would enjoy it.
@@barmacidic2257 I really don't. I know there are games pushing deep to the simulation but they won't be as complete and realistic as a proper scientific/engineering tool.
I love seeing skilled operators using heavy machinery. Great videos.
What about crane operators
@@jonathanthomas2449 well I think there's a strong case that cranes are heavy machinery, and therefore I believe they are included in the compliment! Everyone on this project is obviously perfectly skilled for their tasks 🙂
Weirdly cute seeing the pipe tied to the excavator's neck with a great big ribbon. And that caution tape above the pipes is so thoughtful! I love little things like that that show how people create procedures to make other people's lives easier.
To be fair, the caution tape isn't because they're thoughtful, it's because of too many painful instances where water/sewer/gas/electric pipes/lines were compromised by excavation, building codes started mandating specific indicators and their heights above said pipes/lines ;)
I appreciate the effort put in to blur the workers faces. In addition to ensuring privacy and comfort of the workers, I find it genuinely visually appealing because it doesn't become a distraction to me from the construction content.
Gotta appreciate the skill of the people in those excavators. I've seen these people juggle eggs in their buckets without breaking them. They are surgeons.
I can’t tell you how many miles of underground work I have witnessed while being an RE for a water and wastewater consulting firm. These guys had it easy only having to leak test with water instead of having to vac test not only the lines but, also every manhole. Plus using pvc makes it so much easier. Try miles of 36” concrete water main through suburban subdivisions, under creeks, rail, and dealing with homeowners!
So interesting to see how they incorporate a whole new set of lines and such, IN A WORKING SYSTEM! The detailed steps needed and special tools/ equipment. There is always so much more to a project/ system than we lay people realize. Thanks again for showing us a 'peek under the hood' of our modern world.
I was so confused by the manhole process that I thought they left the old and new pipes unconnected and filled around them completely. Now I know the old pipe will be cut and the empty space left in the manhole will redirect the sewage to the old and new pipes.
It’s such a good idea. Easier construction and it makes a void in the finished concrete the exact correct size! Genius
Yes, I also thought the manhole process was presented less clearly than the rest of the video. IMO it would have been helpful to have the explanation of what the objective was before showing the construction of the manholes. Very educational regardless
“Time to move on to number two”. I see what you did there 😅. Another great video.
Those screw-tightened rubber seals are very interesting. I always thought there would be more permanent seals, but those seem really nice. I'd love to learn more about seals in general.
Hydraulic Press channel recently tried to create alternative ice structures using high pressure, and he ran into some issues with sealing.
There is so much rubber in this whole project. Why would it hold for more than 15 years is a mystery to me.
Underground life of rubber is much longer as the main cause of deterioration of rubber is UV light which doesn't reach underground.
Watch Farmcraft 101 He works with seals in hydraulics, carburetors, etc. but will sometimes overly an image of an injured "seal" on the screen 😁 Turns out, the spelling is the same as well. He finds some cute animal pictures. I thought they would grout the penetrations. I have done some repairs with 6 and 8 inch pvc pipe like that for water feeds in a golf course that sat over a landfill, but had not seen that type of rubber seal. HDPE is another pipe I have used, but we fused it together. The rubber seal is a good idea.
@@vasiliigulevich9202 I had a pair of tires on a car under my carport that I never drove. The tires were almost 18 years old when I sold the car and still holding air. The rubber here is much thicker and isn't going to experience any pressure.
Worst case in a few decades, the rubber will be pretty hard, but that doesn't really matter, unless the pipes are moving. And if the pipes are moving you have bigger problems than your seals.
Pipes might move some from normal ground shifting but not much.
Thanks to the entire Practical Engineering Team!
Working as a Civil CAD tech, this series is a great way to show the results of what I draw!
I hope Grady will do a series of your part of the process as well!
Good CAD Techs are worth their weight in gold. During my 34 years as an engineer, I've had the pleasure of working with a few good ones. Unfortunately, I've worked with some that weren't that great. Your profession is much appreciated!
I didn't even know CAD techs *were* a thing until quite recently, I just assumed engineers drew the drawings. I'm guessing in reality what engineers produce to describe the design has all the information in there *somewhere* but additional drawings and reports are needed to present that information usefully to construction crews and the like?
Having spent years performing subsurface utility surveying and working alongside civil engineers in the same department, this series absolutely fascinates me. Thank you for this project!
I have never seen a gravity line valved like that, we usually do a box structure with gates. Very cool.
I had a contractor try to use a garden hose as a linkseal one time.
I have ever seen a contractor cuss more than when he realized he cored the wrong spot on a precast wetwell.
Also, I think the engineer of record may have a flowable fill fetish. : P
flowable fill fetish ..hahah agree
Wouldn’t flowable fill be expensive compared to using what’s there? Unless the original soil wasn’t very good for fill.
@@ihd-3603 It would be hard to say what would be the best approach without seeing the geotechnical report and other information, that would dictate what’s used more than anything.
In my region that much flowable fill would be too expensive to use, but it may be cheaper in southern Texas.
@@ihd-3603 In a previous episode Grady said the soil was mostly clay which isn't suitable. Clay expands and contracts a lot depending on moisture and temperature.
I look forward to these more than just about anything else. Thank you, Grady!
I will literally drop what I’m doing when I see Grady has posted an upload
@@assrappingHope that you're not a crane driver.
Seconded, this is currently my favourite TV series! Loving this Grady
@@JP_TaVeryMuch DMV, they can wait. what are they going to do? Drive off lmao
It would have been cool to see a little bit about the design phase. Like choosing location, engineering choices, equipment considerations for the site and construction, surveying,etc.
Your videos show things in the construction industry that other people don’t. Thank you.
This is genuinely my favorite content on the platform. I realize it may be difficult to film, or to find companies to work with, but I hope you're able to continue doing it for a long time. I really appreciated the diagram/animation explaining the point of this project too, always nice to have the "why" for something you're working on. Great stuff, can't wait for the next one!
A few years back I worked for a company called National Trench Safety. We rented, and sometimes sold, construction safety equipment. I recognized a lot of the trench boxes and shoring equipment. I remember the slide-rail style you showed in the last video being a pain to deal with. It was neat to see a bunch of stuff I'm familiar with, actually being used. Loving this series, thank you so much!
“Like a gross bendy straw” 😂 absolute gold. This is what I’m here for.
May I say, Mr. Hillhouse, that this new series is 🔥
Thanks Grady!
It's really nice to see how your channel and content quality is growing. Don't get me wrong, you always had good content but the quality has gotten better.
Great job on the "Practical Construction" videos, Grady! I'm looking forward to seeing more of them. So is my 10 year old niece - I gave her a copy of your "Engineering in Plain Sight" book last Christmas, and now she follows your UA-cam channel closely.
I'd be unhealthily obsessed with this show as a kid because I'm healthily obsessed as an adult.
PLEASE keep this format and make more of this kind! As an engineer myself it's mesmerizing to see other engineers do their perfect jobs :D
The quality of this series is so good. Way better than anything that was ever on TV.
I'm a retired communications engineer, but find this sort of content irresistible. An 18 month project installing a new waste water main down the main road near my house using pipe jacking has just completed, and I visited the site most days. The site engineers all wore dirty overalls, boots and a hard hat, but we talked the same language! Once an engineer, always an engineer...:)
I guess modern communication engineers see quite a low of sewer and pipeline construction. There's more and more usage of existing right-of-ways for things like fiberoptic cables. I've read of pipeline owners putting in fiber optics into their existing lines, using sewers to run internet and power lines. I've even seen a railway putting in internet lines, because it's cheaper than getting permission for a new right-of-way through a multitude of properties. And electricity networks are now putting in their own long-distance powerline communications to talk to smart meters, or even hang fiberoptics on powerline towers because they had spare poles.
And, thanks to communications engineers ("magician" if you ever worked in HF applications), FM car radios work in long tunnels these days...
Thank you for ALL of your work. I am a former ESH and QA professional who worked on projects like the DFWIA People Mover, the streetcar project that goes from the downtown Dallas train station into Oakcliff and Measure RR QA oversight. I am no longer able to work, but I get a lot of enjoyment being able to virtually be onsite again!
Thank you!
Searn Rodgers
I'm loving this practical construction series!! I'm a civil engineer from Argentina and this is exactly what I do at my job at the moment. I've installed pumping stations like this one (in a smaller scale) recently. Love to see how you do it there, and I'd love to see more content like this. Keep it up!
Im a big fan of knowing how things work, so i am really liking this series.
Great stuff Grady! A fascinating look at the construction of infrastructure that we all take for granted.
I had to laugh when you unwittingly said, 'we're moving on to number 2'. Given the context, that could mean more than one thing. 🙂
I was a wastewater engineer for a mid-sized city in Washington. Our maintenance crew wanted to paint a logo on their trucks that read "Your number 2 makes Us number 1". Unfortunately, upper management said no.😂
I am not an engineer and no one close to me is. You continuously answer questions I’ve asked before. Thank you for educating the public 😊
This series deserves an award! If you've got a link to any particular nomination page that you'd like to share, I would genuinely enjoy writing a submission to help make it happen. As a nerdy adult, I'm reminded of all the engineering documentaries I watched as a nerdy kid. I'm so glad to see such high-quality "minutiae docs" so accessible! Thank you!
Im currently studying civil engineering, i hope to work in the municipal sewage sector one day. These videos keep me motivated and entertained. Love it👏🏼
Congratulations future "turd chaser". I spent 34 years as a municipal civil engineer. The last 9 were to keep the "sauce" moving.
This is so fascinating!! So much more complex than I thought before watching. Can't wait for the next one!
Of all your amazing content, I never thought that I would be so enthralled by a series about building a poop elevator. Bravo, Grady. Keep em coming.
The fact that we can open the faucet and flush the toilet everyday is the true miracle of modern life. Thank you so much for you ingenuity and hard work.
These have been excellent, thank you! Also, knew it was big but when you said core drill through 1' of concrete I thought you were talking about the diameter until you showed the plug after it was drilled and wow, really was 1' thick, just looked thinner because of how wide the wet well is!
This series is awesome! I hope you keep it up with other projects in the future! Very, 'How its made'
as someone who sits behind a screen with civil3d opened on it for most of my day, it's good to see the actual construction of how it works and how it all goes together in the field.
This is the perfect mix of commentary and time lapse, like even the time lapse speed itself is perfect, not too quick or slow
I'm fascinated as always by this series, and your videos, but I'd just like to say how much I appreciate your blurring of the personnel on site's faces. Too many creators aren't concerned with privacy or the people they're filming (or the people who happen to get in the shot while they film themselves) and it's a refreshing change to see the care you've taken to be respectful of those around you and the site.
Thank you Grady for giving us this series!
Civilization isn't magic. It's a lot of hard, dirty work. Practical Engineering has shown us many of the parts. Thank you so much for showing how those parts are built into a world we can live in.
Love this! Down to earth (no pun) construction, NO fake drama like a network show would have. Thank You!
The place I live is having the water pipes replaced. They used the diamond saw to cut through the road to access the soil below to put the new pipe in. The job site is to narrow to fence it up. So I can just walk out and see them laying down the pipes. Really fascinating.
i genuinely am loving this series
so far i've counted at least 3 moments where i went:
"boy the way they do this sure looks and sounds like the dumbest sh*t ever,
but then he explained why it has to be done that way and WOW i can't even."
it's dawning on me how dumb most construction sites & workers look, yet there's nearly always a very brilliant method to their apparent madness
i love it!
Phlowable Phil was my rap name in high school
I probably laughed harder than I should have, good one 😂
Rewatching the entire series since *Grady said they’re getting less views than his usual content* . Please let these series continue!
gotta love this series. A successful experiment in my book
Remember before all this craziness when you would call a Spigott and Bell, Male and Female ends and no one was offended
And?
Grady is the kind of guy everybody should have as a neighbour!
As a nuke gauge technician and concrete tester, I am so happy to see recognition in this series.
Please keep this a regular series on your channel. Its absolutely fantastic.
12:50 that foil warning marker is very cool, I just wish we could develop something that worked for horizontal blind drilling contractors. Some of them are almost habitually attracted to striking sewer lines, because they're usually hard to locate by ground penetrating radar, assuming it was even used.
Im a residential plumber/gas fitter and I love my job, but this video makes me seriously consider going civil. Thanks for this Grady.
Probably my favourite series on YT currently. It's really cool seeing things start to come together.
I gotta say I rarely sit through an entire video totally riveted, but this show got me. I'm a general contractor and I can't get enough.
Awesome series Grady! I really hope you do a series on other civil engineering project types.
The trenching/laying/backfilling segments brought me back to the early 80s when my crew was installing fibre-optic cable runs. Given that splicing the fibres was done 'manually' in those days - with a ceramic blade, microscope and arc - we were more than happy to put 2 layers of warning tape in the trench!
I enjoy pretty much all of your content so it's no surprise that this series has kept my attention. It's nice to see a project from beginning to end. We often see glimpses from afar and not always when something interesting is happening so it's nice to get this look into the process.
Years ago, I covered the installation of some fiber cable under the Potomac River. I don't know whatever happened to that footage but I was glad to be able to get so much access to the site...except that time I got poison ivy really bad on my arms because I wasn't paying attention. LOL
Watching this series puts me in mind of the natural disasters we hear about from around the world, where poorly built infrastructure, unseen until the disaster strikes, fails, and entire communities are devastated. Excellent design and regulated construction are essential parts of a functioning society. Corruption and greed kill more people than they should.
I like the giant-masonsry-not-quite-a-mag drill. Hole saws are where it's at. Strong work as always!
The quality of this video content is only paralleled by the quality of the team's work!
Watching high quality construction projects with great explanations like this one is incredibly satisfying... The precision and thoroughness of the work displayed is naturally pleasing! 🥰
And the final recap with the aerial plan was just cherry on top, exactly what I was hoping for by that point to understand the whole thing correctly.
Amazing job, Mr Grady! This spin-off was such a great idea.
Love civil engineering. In fact after an absence of a few decades, at over 60 y.o. I've just re-entered it. I never thought I'd be back doing it again (especially starting at the bottom again!) I've always loved the construction & though my body is really feeling the hard work, I do enjoy seeing the end results (so far!) Bring on the next episode !
Oddly enough I spent the weekend dealing with a neighbor’s plumbing issue.. 😆 thank you Grady for all the work you put into this
As a plumber for four decades, we have always struggled with the best way to seal subsurface pipe penetrations through concrete walls/foundations. I can’t count the number of different methods we’ve used. Most would eventually fail after years, but many right away due to hydrostatic pressure constantly trying to push the ground water through. There was never a penetration seal that you could bet your life on - until the invention of the LINK-SEAL. I have never had a failure of a LINK-SEAL, no matter how deep and how wet the ground was. It is extremely important to follow the installation instructions and to not be complacent in thinking you’ve done it before, so you are now an expert and can just install them by sight and feel. There are specific methods that must be followed. If you or your company is going to pay the cost (they are not cheap) of using a perfect product such as a LINK-SEAL, you need to treat it with respect.
Qualified person to be the host. Excellent.
This video series has taught me just how versatile excavators are, they can do everything!
one of the best series ever on this channel! never known how much work & expertise needed, just to expand the capacity to remove our stinky wastewater
Awesome video glad we soil technician got represented testing the soil densities too. Really enjoying the series.
Hearing you talk about the nuke gauge is so nice because I feel like QC/QA gets overlooked a lot when talking about construction when it's one of the most important parts of the process.
Grady, I appreciate and enjoy this series so much. While not a civil engineer or in the construction industry, I have been fascinated by utility systems- mostly wastewater systems since I was a kid. This series has been so much fun to watch and see it’s process. Thank you for taking the time and ambition to make the series a reality.
Why am I enjoying long-form video journalism on sewage infrastructure more than almost anything on TV?
These guys work so hard, it makes their faces blur. ;) Great content, thank you.
waiting for these episodes to slowly come out one at a time painfully, one week at a time is a big brain 4D play by Grady to truely simulate the slog of the true construction experience.
That Trench Roller is so cute oh my gosh it's like a big friendly dog on a leash with how that worker follows it around!
I don't usually comment, but I really love this extreme deep dive into critical infrastructure! It's so easy to take stuff like this for granted (until you watch a multi-hour doc on how it gets made)!
To me, this is the live version of Richard Scary's book, "What do people do all day." Keep up the good work Grady!!
This series is in no way a “solid waste” of my time. Keep the episodes coming Grady! 👍
I would just like to say, that as an Electrician (Instructor) and a student of Construction Supervision. I really appreciate your videos.
"That process, and much, much more, on the next episode"
I haven't been this anxious for the next episode to come out since watching DBZ as a kid!
I live seeing excavators work, sped up like this, you can really see how skilled some operators are.
It's as if the excavator is a 3rd arm for the operator.
Truly impressive
This channel is literally the best. If Discovery channel made content this good I would still have cable
With the number of drain jetting channels out there, seeing how the poop flows is a viable series on UA-cam
Thanks so much for this series, Grady. My 9-yr old daughter and I have been enjoying it a lot, I've been looking for accessible videos to explain construction for civil engineering and your channel is amazing.
As a tunnel engineer, I really appreciate your approach from both the technical and construction sides! Looking forward to seeing more. Keep up the great work!
Would love too see this type of series on “high rise” type construction as well
as a builder, I appreciate all the work here. It may be interesting to see a break down of costs on this project
I hope you eventually get your own TV series or some kind of “officially” sponsored/sanctioned program. These pure, high production value, highly educational videos are straight up what some people need to become interested and involved in this field. Amazing work your doing!
This is hands down the best series I've seen this year.
coolest shot of this project was that of the ground water pouring out of "solid" rock and into the excavation