That heat wave last July ruined my whole week on the job

I was on a commercial job in Denver fixing a main drain line, and the temps hit 104 for three days straight. My crew and I had to keep stopping because the blacktop was literally burning through our boots. We lost two full days of work and had to refund the customer $800 because we couldn't finish on time. Has anyone else had a project totally derailed by extreme weather?

3 comments

3 Comments

charles67812d ago

I read somewhere that Denver crews now soak the asphalt with water first to cool it down fast.

verap5212d ago

Man that sounds brutal. We had a similar situation here in Phoenix last summer where the asphalt got so soft our equipment was sinking into it. Cost us a whole afternoon just trying to rig up shade tarps and rotate crews every 20 minutes. It's rough when you're losing money on a job you already bid out and the weather just laughs at your schedule.

morgan_butler12d ago

Rotate your crews and add more fans is what we started doing on nights like that. One hospital we work with had us set up a portable AC unit right in the work zone so the guys could take turns standing in front of it for two minutes at a time. Still lost a full shift when the pavement got so hot it melted the soles off a pair of steel toes we had sitting on the ground. You end up spending more money on hydration and cooling supplies than you make on the job some days.