Guest Constructors - welcome to the new Great Escape

Several folks have asked about contributing to this site - seems a lot of workers in the area are sick of the sickness, however they can't afford to lose their job over the BS.

So to anyone wanting to anonymously add photos or videos from their cell phones send me a note here green.stone.us@gmail.com along with your phone number - then with the push of a button you may help keep these crooks in line. Folks like Faulconer Construction are not going to listen to any one of us, however with their massive egos and wallets on the line they may listen to all of us.

To all of you still in the trenches - go check out The Great Escape - it's got Steve McQueen, and a badass young Charles Bronson - every minute of the film is amazing, and the tunneling they did... well... when it's life or death you gitter done. Compare that to risking your life for the commodes of some bratty puds at UVa and that's about the size of it...

Oh yeah, and there's a new group here on facebook for cleaning up the whole mess also known as UVa construction.... feel free to join up!

remember the good times we had

Well it has been an exciting couple of weeks here at Famines Follies, and thank you to everyone for getting this site up on the net - #3 in google with "Faulconer Construction" - Also thank you to the EPA and OSHA - both agencies independently contacted me and are on the case.

The REALLY good news is that Faulconer is now starting to take credible action (rather than trying to discredit this site as a terrorist effort) by taking all of their foremen and superintendents to trench safety courses... of course that probably should have been done to begin with.... whatever...

So on a lighter note for the weekend - let's remember all the good times - here's a photo gallery of some friends rocking recycled* aluminum jewelry we made from worksite scraps.

Speaking of recycling - South Lawn is a LEEDS compliant work, and Barton Malow has done an awesome job of making it that way (with all due credit to Smitty at Prestige for his amazing talent...)

Sir Mike Rockin' an awesome recycled aluminum armband like only a real rock star can - gitter done dude! Click on photo to see the gallery.

Faulconer Construction, UVa, W. M. Jordan - Ship of Fools?

Of the roughest days on the job perhaps the most brutal came courtesy of an engineer. As many of you perceive there was some real shady work going on. Honestly as messed up as it is at the end of the day any craft or tradesman wants to believe that they've done something helpful. Even if the sum of some days meant that chemistry students would have a potty to poo in - well, at least it's not in the street. This is my home, and my neighborhood, and I would rather see it go down a magical ferry ride to poo paradise where it may be meet its brethren.

So after digging 150 under four steam tunnels (yeah, the poorly shielded ones), experiencing several collapses, and watching gallons of raw sewage flood what is essentially my back yard, there was still that sparkle of redemption.... it was finished, and it needed to be done, and it wasn't perfect, but.... well whatever.

Along shows this engineer, and I just had to ask him - "Why did we have to replace the existing line, and install a new one 2/10's of an inch lower?"


To which he replied "Because that old terra cotta line really needed to be upgraded."

To which my colleague and I winced "WTF!!! Are you kidding?!?! That was a ductile iron line we just replaced with cheap PVC!?!" NB: for those tender readers not versed - ductile iron is a heck of a lot stronger than PVC plastic.

To which he replied "Oh."

So in other words that entire exercise could have been prevented had anyone just looked in the man hole to see what was there. Several $$$$$$ thousand+ with lives risked and it was entirely pointless. The complete and utter lack of effort on the part of everyone involved is astonishing. Facilities Management at UVa, could have poked there heads in there, someone at WM Jordan might have wondered about lowering a line that little, and anyone at Faulconer could have stepped up... c'est le pee - ship of fools for real.

to whom it may concern - this is not a terrorist website.

whoever is running around the South Lawn project spreading libel and slander bs that this is some a terrorist website - one thing to say - cut the crap. Word is out and that is a serious accusation that no one around here takes lightly. To whoever is behind this... an additional Admiral's Response to you. anyone with information regarding this rumor is encouraged to step forward.



oh yeah, and google "faulconer construction" this site is now at number 8 and 9 3... get some kids, you've been pwned.

Trench safety techniques a la Faulconer Construction

The dangers in this photograph may not immediately be apparent. This is the view from around 11:00AM after we escaped two z-forms collapsing in our ditch. Actually it was a collapse of dirt that fell from beneath the sidewalk that knocked over the 24' steel z-forms. Anyhow...

Credit where it's due - our good fortune owes to the quick reflexes of the track-hoe operator, whose bucket crashed through the ladder in place to block the falling steel forms.

Here's the video from 8:30 that morning (and yes, those are folks working in an unshored tunnel under the steam tunnel...) where the forms are all "in place."




Look forward to an update on this - I don't have a copy of the International Building Code that gives actual numbers for setting z-forms (those long narrow steel plates) however the rule of thumb we were told was approximately one foot in the ground for every two feet above it... These are 24' forms in a 21-22' ditch and in many places the forms are sticking out ABOVE the trenchline.....

Setting z-forms may be a difficult process, and occasionally requires additional machinery. Moreover it is not uncommon to lose pieces of steel into the ground - retrieval being near-impossible. I guess the good news is that no z-forms were lost in this dig...

The other puzzler to me is that here after the collapse we now have a completely undermined sidewalk for a span of fifteen feet.... I guess it's like they say "watch for cracks in the sidewalk..." Had any of that fallen into the ditch there is no question that it would have demolished what little shoring was there.

Additional credits - Faulconer Construction on the ditch, WM Jordan general contractor, and Dear ole' UVa is to thank for bringing them together to build the CAS building.... maybe tomorrow we'll talk about how absolutely unnecessary this entire ditch line was to begin with (and how grossly incompetent the engineers were)... another story for another day...

Randy dies on the South Lawn project - hope ya'll like the Air Conditioning

Hope you Politics and Religious studies majors enjoy the air conditioning. A decent man died for it. Randy got crushed between a track hoe and a concrete barrier working for your air conditioning. While going from a size 50 to size 15 did not kill him on the spot, six weeks later he was six feet under. Insurance reports claim that the death was unrelated to the accident so... you guessed it - to my knowledge his family never got so much as a nickle from Faulconer Construction.

Fuck'ner construction strikes again. And there is the blood on your hands, UVa.

Faulconer construction, destruction, whatever.

With due respect I bestow upon you all the Admiral Pennington Response*:

"Fuck you. Strong words to follow."

*The Admiral was a fixture of Lexington, Virginia for many years. When irritable he would promptly drop a letter in the mail with what became known as the Admiral's Response. The Response is used to this day in some circles as one of the most delightful, direct, elegant, and efficient responses available in the English vernacular.

the company Faulconer Construction keeps?

You've got to be careful quoting Ronald Reagan, because when you quote him accurately it's called mudslinging.-- Walter Mondale

In a break from the field let's take it up the ladder a notch and rap about Faulconer Construction's management team... To call it exceptional is to denigrate the term. Truly these are the few, the arrogant, the bar lowered to the level of the sewer.

The first real lightbulb moment with Faulconer came the day I received a notice in my mail. In summary it alerted me that a percentage of my wages were to be deposited into a Faulconer account and that it was my responsibility to OPT OUT of the program. Furthermore at the end of a specified period unused money might become property of Faulconer.

More than a bit shocked I returned the notice signed opting out - asking what type of dumpkopf would propose such idiocy. To my horror many men fall prey to this ploy.

The inverse of a 401k matching - it's finance Faulconer style, and yueah, it's a dying horse, but it ain't dead enough so it bears repeating - "Faulconer Construction = Fuckn'er Construction".

It's the Faulconer Construction way for Dear ole UVa

Well it has been a fun and exciting week, and I personally thank all of you for your visits... all 170 250+ of you that have visited in the last three days - it's very encouraging.

!!! #1 and #2 in Google with "faulconer construction osha" and "faulconer construction epa" !!!

So for Friday and in keeping with OSHA, EPA, OSHA EPA.... today we'll look at another EPA violation.

Whether it is sloth or stupidity may never be known... however when removing sewer pumps the excess fluids DO NOT BELONG IN THE STORM TUNNELS!!!!
The correct way to remove sewer lines often requires a track hoe to lift the pump and the connected tubing to thus drain it before it spills into our rivers and streams.... However if no one from UVa's facilities management is watching it's a lot simpler to just disconnect the thing and let the caca strew about the streets and in to Charlottesville's Rivanna.

Also in the news - have had several inquiries from 3rd parties - if you have anything to say feel free to mouth off on the blog or email me - Got some great photos you want posted? Send them along :)

camping in trenches

Technically camping in trenches is hardly a crime. after digging through terrain with picks and shovels it may be the only sensible thing to do. Sometimes, however, it's probably not a great idea. Especially when the bossman doesn't feel like running to Lowes to pick up some extra 6x6's for shoring.

Probably something I should have done a long time ago - figure out what the legal requirements for shoring are...

More on that later.... here from the trenches for your viewing pleasure - my favorite unshielded or poorly shielded trenches....


First up we have two pieces of shoring set up on an 8' long trench set 23' in the ground. This tunnel, as the ones to follow, were carved under steam tunnels.
But really, that's awesome compared to this pretty picture... absolutely no shielding whatsoever and a man in the tunnel... (yeah, folks - 20+ feet in the ground, no shielding, no safety, nothing....) And now thanks to the OSHA website and code 1926.800(o)(1) it is no doubt..... there's no shoring above the entrance (unless you count an existing water line) = violation #1.
And while we're at it...
1926.800(o)(4)(i)

Shafts and wells over 5 feet (1.53 m) in depth that employees must enter shall be supported by a steel casing, concrete pipe, timber, solid rock or other suitable material.....

And lastly, this is how it SHOULD look.... see all the pretty 6x6s in a row? See all the twox4's holding them in place? WTF - well the other guys probably saved an extra hundred or two hundred dollars on the lumber and perhaps an hour or two of work.... I'm still not certain whether it is sloth or incompetence that breeds these errors.... hard to say.... and here in Charlottesville no less on the Grounds of the University of Virginia...

Massive EPA + OSHA violations at Faulconer Construction and UVa in Charlottesville

I'm still looking for the code on the EPA There's a great website where it explains in common legal terms what anyone should know anyway.... spilling thousands of gallons of raw sewage into the ground is NOT COOL. It is also NOT COOL to work in a ditch line that is filled with caca water... although the level went down before we got in there look at homeboy's pants legs to see where it got up to.... up to your ankles in caca ain't no jive kids.... and yes, it's just flowing right on down into the ground...

Great thanks to Ms. Degen at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for turning me on to the Legislative Information System website - what a resource!

To get to the meat of the matter go to "Code of Virginia - statutory law" -> "Table of Contents" -> "Title 62.1 WATERS OF THE STATE, PORTS AND HARBORS." -> "Chapter 3.1 State Water Control Law" -> "62.1-44.5 Prohibition of waste discharges or other quality alterations of state waters except as authorized"

Perhaps I am mistaken, however I do not recall anyone asking about dumping a couple thousand gallons of raw chemical sewage into that ditch, then again, perhaps I'm just a dumb construction worker and they did get permission...

That's enough for today, tomorrow we'll get in to Virginia Administrative Codes including my new favorite "9VAC25-790-360. Water quality and public health and welfare protection"

OSHA violations from Faulconer construction

OSHA violations may be a dime a dozen, however this is something of a masterpiece - and yes, that is the foreman telling the poor slob in the ditch to "get out of there" as the z-forms (unsecured, and improperly set) collapse on either side collapse... another day on the job at faulconer construction