Question about site prep I saw at a job in Houston

I was working a job last month at a refinery in Houston. The site crew spent two full days just leveling and compacting the ground before we even got our crane on site. They used a laser level and kept checking every 10 feet across a 200 foot pad. First time I saw that much prep for a 150 ton mobile crane setup. Usually I roll up and they just eyeball it with gravel. Does anyone else deal with this much site prep or am I just used to sloppy jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamief6716d ago

Man that level of prep sounds like overkill for a 150 ton crane. I've seen guys set up bigger rigs on nothing but a few inches of crushed concrete and it worked fine. Two days with a laser level seems like someone was either getting paid by the hour or covering their ass for something unrelated. Unless the ground was straight up mud or swamp, I'd call that wasted time.

phoenix_bailey15d agoMost Upvoted

Hang on though, a laser level isn't really for checking compaction, it's for making sure the ground is dead flat so the crane doesn't tip when you rotate. Two days of that sounds like they were just being careful, not slow.

corap2115d ago

I hear you on the "dead flat" part, but let's be real here. You can get ground level with a 6 foot level and some patience, not a full blown laser setup for two days. I've seen crews eyeball a spot with a transit in an hour and call it good, and that crane didn't tip. Unless you're setting up on a literal hill or a landfill, I'm not sure why you'd need that much precision for a 150 ton rig. It's not like you're launching rockets, you know? Seems like someone might've been milking the clock a bit.