northland power outage sabotage opportunity....

[F5 Dave]

Just watched that. The boss guy just wanted the world to swallow him up.
You useless cunts have made me go on telly and say it's all my fault. WTF were you thinking? jesus how stupid are you?

[jellywrestler]

jesus how stupid are you?

i spent a night in warkworth last wed night, there were work crews at the accom i was at, not for power but some of their habits would have meant a cloudy head the next day

[R650R]

What would the torque specs be on those nuts? Reckon it would be right up the with say final drive assembly on a D9 dozer. 12 stud trailer axles are 500Nm and take some effort to loosen.

I don’t think your average limp wristed greenie eco protestor would even know how to use a torque multiplier let alone access one.

Occamsxtazor they say don’t subscribe to malice what could just be incompetence. I bet that was coming up to beer o clock on that job and they’d gotten away with it before perhaps by accident at first and then it becomes the norm.
Also there’s got to be a lack of decent supervision/oversight/auditing for this to go on.

A good issue to raise though this stuff does happen in other countries and that restore passenger rail nutter group we’re starting to get quite belligerent u til cops started taking more action. Only a matter of time before it becomes a real problem.

[pete376403]

What would the torque specs be on those nuts? Reckon it would be right up the with say final drive assembly on a D9 dozer. 12 stud trailer axles are 500Nm and take some effort to loosen.

I don’t think your average limp wristed greenie eco protestor would even know how to use a torque multiplier let alone access one.

Occamsxtazor they say don’t subscribe to malice what could just be incompetence. I bet that was coming up to beer o clock on that job and they’d gotten away with it before perhaps by accident at first and then it becomes the norm.
Also there’s got to be a lack of decent supervision/oversight/auditing for this to go on.

A good issue to raise though this stuff does happen in other countries and that restore passenger rail nutter group we’re starting to get quite belligerent u til cops started taking more action. Only a matter of time before it becomes a real problem.

If truly into sabotage rather than incompetence, an oxy-acetlyene torch would make short work if the nuts, regardless of torque settings. Also more difficlut to repair. However restore rail and other eco protestors are hardly going to attack the cleanest energy we have. In fact it's more the sort of thing I would attribute to hydrocarbon fueled road transport supporters

[husaberg]

If truly into sabotage rather than incompetence, an oxy-acetlyene torch would make short work if the nuts, regardless of torque settings. Also more difficlut to repair. However restore rail and other eco protestors are hardly going to attack the cleanest energy we have. In fact it's more the sort of thing I would attribute to hydrocarbon fueled road transport supporters

About 10 years ago an irate landowner cut through a few of the legs on a DC tower with a grinder.
not sure if it made the news but it was found during an inspection.
A few years ago someone also sabotaged another Transpower asset he was convicted and then jailed. He was a conspiracy theorist COVID antivaxer nutter.

[R650R]

If truly into sabotage rather than incompetence, an oxy-acetlyene torch would make short work if the nuts, regardless of torque settings. Also more difficlut to repair. However restore rail and other eco protestors are hardly going to attack the cleanest energy we have. In fact it's more the sort of thing I would attribute to hydrocarbon fueled road transport supporters

Extremists of any sort are never concerned with logic or not harming through friendly fire. The callous act of blocking main highways is a good example. Somewhere in that que would be rail workers trying to get to work or other former rail passengers now driving to work or even the purist of all bus passengers.
Your 911 hijackets likely didn’t go to the ticket counter and ask to check manifest to make sure no Muslim’s were on board besides themselves…
Hydrocarbon supporters would never damage power, we need electricity for the gas station pumps to work

[neels]

I would suspect from what I've heard from people in the industry that in this case it's more to do with the job being contracted and sub-contracted downwards to the point that the people doing the work don't really understand it, and the only motivation is to get in and out as quickly as possible to maximise profit.

In this country we used to have a SOE staffed by competent people who looked after the whole infrastructure, but Max Bradford decided that was inefficient and splitting it up to have multiple layers of Boards/CEOs/shareholders and contracting work to profit driven companies would make our electricity cheaper. I think Enron was the model they used.....

Regardless, the nuts on the feet of pylons aren't that big, I have a spanner large enough to drop one tomorrow if I was so inclined, I think incompetence is a bigger threat to our electricity system than sabotage.

[pete376403]

I would suspect from what I've heard from people in the industry that in this case it's more to do with the job being contracted and sub-contracted downwards to the point that the people doing the work don't really understand it, and the only motivation is to get in and out as quickly as possible to maximise profit.

In this country we used to have a SOE staffed by competent people who looked after the whole infrastructure, but Max Bradford decided that was inefficient and splitting it up to have multiple layers of Boards/CEOs/shareholders and contracting work to profit driven companies would make our electricity cheaper. I think Enron was the model they used.....

Regardless, the nuts on the feet of pylons aren't that big, I have a spanner large enough to drop one tomorrow if I was so inclined, I think incompetence is a bigger threat to our electricity system than sabotage.

Indeed - "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Robert J. Hanlon of Scranton, Pennsylvania, US.

[F5 Dave]

I thought I'd come up with that saying until I saw it quoted. My version said incompetence, which is slightly different and more apt in more situations.

[BMWST?]

I would suspect from what I've heard from people in the industry that in this case it's more to do with the job being contracted and sub-contracted downwards to the point that the people doing the work don't really understand it, and the only motivation is to get in and out as quickly as possible to maximise profit.........................

Regardless, the nuts on the feet of pylons aren't that big, I have a spanner large enough to drop one tomorrow if I was so inclined, I think incompetence is a bigger threat to our electricity system than sabotage.

Indeed and the former argument results in the latter...all the real knowledge is leaving the businesses and all that is left are processes and tasks. The result is fragmentation to the point of no real responsibility . I think this is evident in a lot of our infrastructure now..Its like a a lot of houses are built. So many different teams and labour only contracts that there is no one person who can take (or wants) responsibilty for it.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Indeed and the former argument results in the latter...all the real knowledge is leaving the businesses and all that is left are processes and tasks. The result is fragmentation to the point of no real responsibility . I think this is evident in a lot of our infrastructure now..Its like a a lot of houses are built. So many different teams and labour only contracts that there is no one person who can take (or wants) responsibilty for it.

I dabbled a bit in property development back in the day. Too much stress for me now. My favourite story is we were building a block of five townhouses. Garage on the bottom, living in the middle, bedrooms up top. They were nice. The last one I saw sold was $900k plus. Anyway, it turns out the electrician went tits up or on a bender so three of the apartments had the conduit from the slab up through the garage wall but the other two were surface mounted in conduit. Why? The electrician didnt turn up so the blockies just carried on, so did everybody else. Then the project mismanager got a phone call..... the key to the issue was there was no site foreman or clerk of works or anyone actually making sure shit got done in the right order.

It also left me with the most abiding takehome I can give anyone. A building project is going OK if the site is tidy. If no fucker has rung WM and organised the skip to be emptied, or picked up the shit blowing round, or run a broom round or otherwise tidied up it is because no fucker cares and the job is in trouble. It is an absolute indicator of issues with a job. I bore all my builder/developer clients with it and now I am boring you with it. Also any buyers from those guys.

Go to the site, if it is a fucking tip, go elsewhere. Also shout them a slab or two when the roof goes on.

[F5 Dave]

Painter just tidying up at work after doing a few walls. Always pleasant, great job. Not that cheap but there ae great motivated guys out there. Some brush hands in the business are stoners, but the good ones are smart and passionate about knowing the products and applications.

Finding good tradies is like good employees. Pay them well and don't dump on them.

[BMWST?]

I dabbled a bit in property development back in the day. Too much stress for me now. My favourite story is we were building a block of five townhouses. Garage on the bottom, living in the middle, bedrooms up top. They were nice. The last one I saw sold was $900k plus. Anyway, it turns out the electrician went tits up or on a bender so three of the apartments had the conduit from the slab up through the garage wall but the other two were surface mounted in conduit. Why? The electrician didnt turn up so the blockies just carried on, so did everybody else. Then the project mismanager got a phone call..... the key to the issue was there was no site foreman or clerk of works or anyone actually making sure shit got done in the right order.

It also left me with the most abiding takehome I can give anyone. A building project is going OK if the site is tidy. If no fucker has rung WM and organised the skip to be emptied, or picked up the shit blowing round, or run a broom round or otherwise tidied up it is because no fucker cares and the job is in trouble. It is an absolute indicator of issues with a job. I bore all my builder/developer clients with it and now I am boring you with it. Also any buyers from those guys.

Go to the site, if it is a fucking tip, go elsewhere. Also shout them a slab or two when the roof goes on.

i was a sales rep for a building merchant for a while and your comments ring true.The best sites and the most organised sites were the tidy ones.They were run by"proper" builders. This is not the case now. One group builder who i used to deal with a lot mor laterly( i was involved with frames and trusses) had a site supervisor who was an ignorant bully and couldnt organise a piss up in a brewery

[jim.cox]

In my construction experience, its the quality of the site foreman that makes the single biggest difference to how the project runs.

Their attitude, and in particular how they respond to the inevitable problems, is crucial.

But sometimes you get a site that is 'cursed' and nothing goes well, site foreman regardless.

[pete376403]

In my construction experience, its the quality of the site foreman that makes the single biggest difference to how the project runs.

Their attitude, and in particular how they respond to the inevitable problems, is crucial.

But sometimes you get a site that is 'cursed' and nothing goes well, site foreman regardless.

Well this has moved a bit from the original post, but WRT to foremen (none of this foreperson shit, in my day all foremen WERE men) my foreman at GGH was an old-school pom and his mantra was "clean up as you go", he could not abide for a minute a dirty workplace, which usually comes with the territory when working on earthmoving machines straight from the job site. he was a great guy to work with, I learned a solid work ethic and a whole lot about Caterpillar tractors.