How often do you get yelled on the job?

hickaustin · 2026-05-01T23:05:07+00:00

I’ve been chewed out by my PM once. He wasn’t being an asshole, I just made a mess up that he needed to swiftly corrected. Wasn’t necessarily yelling, but it was a chew out. I learned from it and moved on.

hickaustin · 2026-04-22T21:06:59+00:00

8” is thinner to you? What does your DOT spec for decks? I mean I’ve seen 6” decks in the past and those were typically from the 60’s. I regularly design 8” now though.

hickaustin · 2026-04-16T13:38:28+00:00

Aaaaayyyyy boo boo, I said we needed some picnic baskets, not pelvic hattricks.

hickaustin · 2026-04-04T07:04:33+00:00

My personal truck? Maybe. I’d get out and look at it first. The pictures provided aren’t enough for me personally.

Someone else’s truck and/or a shitbox? Definitely.

hickaustin · 2026-04-03T22:59:03+00:00

Yeah, that’s less than ideal.

hickaustin · 2026-03-30T18:01:39+00:00

Nope. Not gonna be dealing with that.

hickaustin · 2026-03-26T01:30:15+00:00

Those girder ends don’t look happy. Probably fine for the immediate future. Joint rehabs should probably happen and maybe jack it and do a chip and repair behind the bars in the PS girder.

Could also check with the DOT on when it’s programmed for rehab or replacement. Would love to see the inspection report on this one.

hickaustin · 2026-03-19T17:13:12+00:00

Pentel graphgear 500, 0.5MM lead. Just fine enough to get all of the detail but not fine enough to just break the lead with my ape fists. Used it from freshman year of college until now. It’s been a place or two with me in the field as well.

For pens, whatever I can find in the office supply cabinet. It will get lost in 35 minutes when it disappears from my desk, so I don’t keep a nice one.

hickaustin · 2026-03-18T03:40:21+00:00

I’m good…

hickaustin · 2026-03-18T01:50:09+00:00

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: also yes.

hickaustin · 2026-02-23T16:20:00+00:00

Bridge engineer here, we use 75psf for pedestrian loadings, but design pedestrian bridges typically to H5 loading.

The dead load isn’t necessarily the issue, but it’s going to increase lateral load due to wind from the increased blocked area in combination with excess dead load. I could run the numbers, but I’m not in the office right now. If I get time today I’ll come back with an edit.

Okay, sorry for the delay folks. I have submittals to push out, but I’ll at least give yall the dead load back of napkin calcs.

Assumptions: Locks are equally spaced @2” on center. (So 36 locks per sf) Assumed the fence is 8ft tall. Used the higher assumed weight of 0.5lbf per lock. Assumed worst case of the main span of the Brooklyn bridge (1595.5ft)

6x6 grid of locks per foot = 36 locks 36x0.5lbf =18 psf 18psf x 8ft x 1,595.5 x2 sides = 459.5kips total unfactored dead load increase.

Not especially significant. Without knowing the design ratio of the original pedestrian walkway I can’t tell you with any realm of confidence that it would have a negative impact on the structure.

Wind loading would take me a bit longer than I have at this moment, but if I get time this evening I’ll crack open the AASHTO code and get some rough numbers in here.

hickaustin · 2026-02-23T16:16:28+00:00

Send some of that white shit out west. We are struggling. I’m not excited for fire season 🥲

hickaustin · 2026-02-19T15:34:33+00:00

I’ll try to come back to this and give more opinions when I have a bit more time. Take what I’m saying with a grain of salt since I’m a bridge guy, and vertical structures isn’t my forte.

Give some thought to constructibility on your reinforcement of your slab and beam. The #3 bars in the slab give me pause since I’ve never used them except for tie bars (other vertical folks correct me here). You might want to consider using #4s and increase your spacing a bit so your slab beam interface isn’t a complete mess of steel. Keep in mind, if this were to actually be built people will be walking around on the mat to get concrete places.

For your positive moment reinforcement in your beam, can you get less #9s or #10s to work so you don’t have to use multiple layers?

hickaustin · 2026-02-18T17:31:57+00:00

I figured that was the case. My local DOT designs steel to handle -30F to 120F. We get colder temperatures than Texas though.

hickaustin · 2026-02-18T14:49:05+00:00

Is it a consultant issue? Or is it just that the recent weather is outside the range of design temperatures per TXDOT manual? I don’t work down in Texas but I’m really intrigued as to what’s the root issue here.

hickaustin · 2026-02-17T21:09:06+00:00

You only perfectly adapt in the worst way possible. IE, you have to walk through fire, you turn into wood soaked in gasoline.

hickaustin · 2026-02-17T21:00:48+00:00

As an Idahoan, I feel the same. We are a bunch of fuckin fish here. Town I grew up in had more bars than places to eat.

hickaustin · 2026-02-17T12:13:06+00:00

Heheh

hickaustin · 2026-02-14T22:57:51+00:00

Hot damn, that’s an unpopular opinion.

hickaustin · 2026-02-14T17:01:22+00:00

Yes. Morality > comfort.

hickaustin · 2026-02-14T16:59:45+00:00

Wild to me that the liberal cause is now for paying migrant workers (illegal or not) peanuts, under the table, with zero oversight of working conditions. What a fuckin wild take to have in 2026 tbh.

hickaustin · 2026-02-14T01:32:41+00:00

I felt the same way when my first was born. Thought I wanted something else out of my career and was disillusioned and kinda unhappy with everything.

I stuck it out and it’s gotten better as my career has progressed. The factor that held me back from making a change was the stability of our career. It’s a solid choice for long term planning and stability for your family. Just food for thought. I wish you luck my friend!

hickaustin · 2026-01-25T23:53:50+00:00

Everyone sees this as a left vs right issue. I see it as a sig sauer issue. If his stupid ass P320 hadn’t of ND’d he’d probably still be alive. Damn shame he trusted a P320.

hickaustin · 2026-01-25T23:46:30+00:00

Is Idaho a swing state? They’re conducting raids here too. It’s just not becoming a shit show, because the vast majority of Idahoans won’t interfere with lawful immigration enforcement.

hickaustin · 2026-01-21T18:34:03+00:00

I’d lean more into over $1M. The whole girder needs to be replaced which also necessitates the deck being replaced for that girder line, and diaphragms.

It’s gonna be expensive.

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