|
Per posted:I'm really sorry to hear that. This has been a really great thread. Heck yes, I'll apply tomorrow. I can learn Danish in a couple months if I put my mind to it. Crackpipe posted:Come to LA and help make 30/10 happen. (and not suck) This, too. It's worth a shot. Grand Fromage posted:Next you're going to suggest we tax yachts slightly in order to pay for things like a functional government. You communist. They actually tried to do this here in CT and the outcry was tremendous. That 1% tax is KILLING SMALL BUSINESS GRRRR!
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 04:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 00:25 |
|
|
Cichlidae posted:I can learn Danish in a couple months if I put my mind to it. I like the cut of your jib! Let me know if you need help with anything.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 05:00
|
|
|
We could sure use you in Ohio, but I'm sure you've seen how Kasich is on a mission to gently caress our public servants, so I wouldn't blame you for keeping your distance.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 05:55
|
|
|
God drat this sucks. Without this thread I honestly probably wouldn't have visited SA as often as I have over the last two years. Have you thought about Australia? People loving love roads over here and we've got so much money tied up in Public-Private Partnerships that you'd never be out of work as a consultant. Plus our money is made of plastic and we have beaches. New South Wales ("Sydney"): http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/careers/index.html Victoria ("Melbourne"): http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/Employment/EmploymentAtVicRoads.htm Queensland ("Brisbane"): http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/About-us/Employment-and-careers/Current-vacancies.aspx Big Contractors: http://www.thiess.com.au/ http://www.johnholland.com.au/ Big Consultant: http://search0.smartsearchonline.com/pb/aus_jobs/adhocjobsearch.asp?reg=AUS exo fucked around with this message at 10:57 on Jul 15, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 10:50
|
|
|
Per posted:I like the cut of your jib! Let me know if you need help with anything. I'm in on this as well. Denmark needs good traffic engineers.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 12:24
|
|
|
Per posted:I like the cut of your jib! Let me know if you need help with anything. Sorry to be a bother, but I can't find a link to apply for a job on the website. Do you think you could help? Maybe you or KozmoNaut could help me translate my CV, as well.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 12:36
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:Sorry to be a bother, but I can't find a link to apply for a job on the website. Do you think you could help? Maybe you or KozmoNaut could help me translate my CV, as well. You can probably contact them directly at one of these addresses http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/dokument.asp?page=document&objno=76983. I'd go for the Copenhagen office, I think that's the main one. There is a listing of current job openings here http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/stillinger.asp?page=dept&objno=77353 but it's only available in Danish. This is also the case for the otherwise very convenient site http://www.job-i-staten.dk/, which lists all current job openings in the public sector. Useability be damned!  That said, send them an email and explain your situation. Write everything in English, just about everyone there probably has some sort of higher education where good English skills are mandatory. EDIT: Current jobs at Vejdirektoratet, translated:
KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Jul 15, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 12:54
|
|
|
Sorry to hear it and I wish you the best. From what I hear, extremely well-paying opportunities are still available in the Middle East for Project Engineers and Project Managers. If I was single and not tied down with a house mortgage I would jump on it. If you are interested, I can get some info from my Kuwaiti colleagues in the office. Engineers here in Wisconsin are being pinched but surprisingly Milwaukee is still floating with opportunities. I have it relatively stable and barring a larger economic disaster will still be here for many years. Neutrino fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Jul 15, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 14:29
|
|
|
Aw, that sucks. Traffic stuff is my guilty nerd pleasure, so I've been enjoying this thread for quite a while.  Neutrino posted:Engineers here in Wisconsin are being pinched but surprisingly Milwaukee is still floating with opportunities. I have it relatively stable and barring a larger economic disaster will still be here for many years.  (they wouldn't be so bad if their signage didn't make them look like a "press the button to summon the pedestrian phase" thing. Damned out of towners and new students annoying everyone by pressing them & causing a barrage of WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. WALK SIGN IS ON. all the time. Maybe Cichlidae can come here and fix that.  )
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 15:44
|
|
|
I checked Rijkswaterstaat (Dutch DoT) and I can't see any openings yet, but you might as well keep an eye on it. IIRC there was another Dutch goon posting in here who used one of your spreadsheets (or vice versa), he might know more. Good luck!
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 16:21
|
|
|
Actually, I could put you in touch with a representative from Bahrain who was looking for contractors for a Qatar highway job they're doing. Message me if you want her info.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 17:13
|
|
|
Chaos Motor posted:Actually, I could put you in touch with a representative from Bahrain who was looking for contractors for a Qatar highway job they're doing. Message me if you want her info. "Qatari highway... in the suuuuuunshine..."
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 17:26
|
|
|
Qatar, where your craziest intersection designs can become reality.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 20:46
|
|
|
Haifisch posted:Aw, that sucks. Traffic stuff is my guilty nerd pleasure, so I've been enjoying this thread for quite a while. I'm in Construction and not in Traffic and haven't heard of those. We have some new pedestrian flashers by City Hall but they don't have a voice. Unfortunately, the number of accidents that they have had with students at Marquette not paying attention to walk signals and zooming cars must have required something more drastic!
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 20:56
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:This, too. It's worth a shot. I'm selfishly hoping for this so TrafficFest '11 is in LA 
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 22:02
|
|
|
Before you flee the state, I want to buy you a drink. Have we ever determined where/when we were going to have a mini traffic goon meet?
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2011 23:10
|
|
|
Before I get on to job stuff, I should go ahead and post today's Field Trip. I was down in New Haven today (sorry, Kefkafloyd, can't come tomorrow; I have a friend's bachelor party to attend) to take a tour of the Q-Bridge construction site. You can check out the details at https://www.i95newhaven.com , but the project essentially consists of two chunks. First off, the bridge itself, a dual 5-lane extradosed cable-stayed bridge. Decorative lighting, complicated stage construction, all that stuff. Second, completely rebuilding the interchange between I-95, I-91, and CT 34. It's a huge, very busy interchange currently, very much substandard. This project looks to fix that. Overall, the cost is something like a billion dollars, and it should be wrapping up in 2016. A good part has already been built, though, so let's take a look!  There were about 15 of us taking the tour, about half of whom got layoff notices yesterday. At least we got cute foam construction cones to use as souvenirs.  One of the first things to get built was the pre-loading. These are gabions, essentially wire boxes filled with rocks, built to add pressure to the 200-odd feet of muck beneath and help it settle before the actual structures are placed. Pre-loading is a great trick if your project is behind schedule, because the longer they're out there, the greater the effect. These have been around long enough to grow trees.  We were standing on a temporary roadway, to be put into service once the first half of the new bridge is built. This road will carry I-95 NB, as well as the merge with CT 34. Eventually, that on-ramp will be turned into a right-hand ramp instead of left. The ramp from 95 NB to 91 NB will fly overhead - that's what the pre-loading is for.  This ramp will carry a couple lanes of I-95 temporarily, and that on-ramp from 34 when the whole thing is done. I took this photo from a low angle to (hopefully) show the wedge (outlined in red) where the road develops superelevation going into the curve. Since we can't just tilt the whole road at once, there is a transition segment to do it slowly.  This bracket will, at some point, house a luminaire. Parapet-mounted signs are connected much in the same way, just without the electrical conduit.  Expansion joints don't stop at the edge of the bridge deck. Even the parapets and walls will expand and contract, so a metal sleeve takes up the slack here. Ignore my coworker there; he's just trying to confuse you by pointing at nothing in particular.  Here is the bridge itself. There is one main span, and two secondary spans. It's hard to get a sense of scale from that far away, though.  You can see by the tiny little guys working down there that this is actually a HUGE bridge. They built the pier table, a small chunk of the bridge, first. Now, they're using that as a balance point and building out from both sides simultaneously. Pretty cool.  Even down on the "ground," the work zone is positively buzzing with activity. I put "ground" in quotes because they're actually standing in the river out there, on top of temporary work platforms.  This is one of the two main piers. Those tubes sticking out from the side will serve as anchors for the cables holding up the spans. They will be attached as the bridge grows to the side.  I took this picture to show you the grade of the road, but it's rather hard to see, so I outlined where it changes abruptly from flat to a steep cross-slope. This is where the shoulder line will eventually go. I can tell by looking at it that the shoulder will be four feet wide. During stage construction, though, it's going to be a problem: we need to fit two lanes there. If a car has one wheel on each side of the slope, it's possible it could bottom out.  These three roadways, for now empty, will carry (from top to bottom): I-95 NB main line I-91 SB ramp to I-95 NB CT 34 EB ramp to I-95 NB All three join up and go over the new bridge.  The concrete ends here; this part probably won't be paved until the bridge is nearly complete. It's hard to tell just how wide it is from this angle, but to put it in different words, this span will carry 6 lanes of I-95 during one of the stages: 3 in each direction, plus shoulders and a barrier.  It's pretty   Looking back at the interchange, this is a good panorama of what's been done so far. In the distance is the new $99M flyover ramp from I-95 NB to CT 34 WB.  For those of you who haven't seen high-grade rebar, well, now you have. The green coating is an epoxy to prevent rust and help it attach to the concrete.  And for those of you well versed in structures, check out those integral pier caps. We had to wrap the entire structure in plastic and air-condition it so the concrete wouldn't crack due to thermal expansion while it was curing.  After the tour, it was off to Savin Rock for lunch. The high food prices also pay for the view. The air was clear enough that I could see SUNY Stony Brook across Long Island Sound.  Fun fact before I go: sea gulls have a red spot on their beaks. If you prod that spot, they will instinctively puke.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 00:06
|
|
|
exo posted:Have you thought about Australia? People loving love roads over here and we've got so much money tied up in Public-Private Partnerships that you'd never be out of work as a consultant. You can bet I'm applying for all of these. KozmoNaut posted:[*]General traffic management work at Vejdirektoratet in Næstved This one could work. I'm not sure if just emailing them is the best bet, especially considering it would be in English. Neutrino posted:I can get some info from my Kuwaiti colleagues in the office. Sure, I've got some experience in construction management. Can't hurt to look
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 00:22
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:This one could work. I'm not sure if just emailing them is the best bet, especially considering it would be in English. I don't think it would hurt any. Maybe also say how much you're looking forward to moving to Denmark and how you intend to stay for a long time, etc.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 00:55
|
|
|
You know what really burns my rear end? They're doing a minor parking lot expansion on campus, only about 15' x 100', and they contracted KBR to do it. Yeah, m'f'n KBR, the "we defraud the FedGov like it's going out of style while raping our employees and locking them in shipping containers" KBR. The worst part? I watched them lay the concrete reinforcement grids today. The steel was completely coated with rust. There was no attempt to clean the steel, and they poured the concrete right onto the rusty reinforcement. Thanks you fraudulent rapists, that's gonna last. The good news is they probably only charged five times what a non-fraudulent local company would have. VV Not rebar my good man (which shouldn't be rusty anyway, note what Chiclidae said about epoxy coating) but mesh steel. VV Chaos Motor fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Jul 16, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 03:37
|
|
|
Chaos Motor posted:You know what really burns my rear end? They're doing a minor parking lot expansion on campus, only about 15' x 100', and they contracted KBR to do it. Yeah, m'f'n KBR, the "we defraud the FedGov like it's going out of style while raping our employees and locking them in shipping containers" KBR. I thought rebar normally looked rusty? 
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 04:05
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:This one could work. I'm not sure if just emailing them is the best bet, especially considering it would be in English. I've put up a Google translated version here. Don't worry about emailing them in English, they're probably aware that their recruitment system is only available in Danish. Applying in a slightly different way from everyone else increases the chances of your application getting noticed 
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 08:48
|
|
|
Chaos Motor posted:You know what really burns my rear end? They're doing a minor parking lot expansion on campus, only about 15' x 100', and they contracted KBR to do it. Yeah, m'f'n KBR, the "we defraud the FedGov like it's going out of style while raping our employees and locking them in shipping containers" KBR. Light surface rust on rebar or mesh steel reinforcing doesn't really matter that much for most projects. When the concrete sets, the low PH and oxygen poor environment prevents further rust from forming.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 08:52
|
|
|
Chiclidae, the meet is next Saturday, not today, so... you're not missing anything I guess? I for one welcome the new 91/95 interchange. It's been years in the works and since the 84-91 flyovers it's been possibly the stupidest major one in the state.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 12:42
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:I've put up a Google translated version here. Thanks, I sent them an email kefkafloyd posted:Chiclidae, the meet is next Saturday, not today, so... you're not missing anything I guess? Sure sure, what's the address?
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 15:14
|
|
|
Can I ask why building roads are so expensive? Why is a ramp cost around $99 million?Is it the cost of the contrete or the labour costs?
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 15:42
|
|
|
Supeerme posted:Can I ask why building roads are so expensive? Why is a ramp cost around $99 million?Is it the cost of the contrete or the labour costs? Material: For a ramp like that, each beam has to be custom-fabricated to have the proper curvature and attachment points. This requires a very specialized factory that can handle pieces of steel hundreds of feet long. Substructure: The bedrock here is very deep, since New Haven used to be a riverbed. In order to build piers for the flyover, they had to tunnel down (underneath an active freeway) into rock, then core into the rock at the bottom of the tunnel. Mobilization: Getting those huge steel beams from the fabricator to the site is very tricky. The trucks go about as fast as you walk, so they need cops ($75/hour) to escort them on freeways. Some existing bridges aren't tall or sturdy enough to support the load, so the route is often circuitous. In some cases, they need to reinforce the road before the beams pass over it. Installation: This was all done over live traffic, so the entire installation procedure had to be planned down to the minute to minimize delays. This involved two huge cranes, temporary supports for the beams, and a temporary pin-and-hanger connection to hold the beams in place while they were being bolted down. All custom-designed. Labor: It's not just the workers you have to pay for, but the mechanics to keep the machines working, police for traffic control, inspectors, overseers, and the rest. Maintenance and Protection of Traffic: You need miles of concrete barrier, paint for lane shifts, signs, often new or temporary overhead signs ($$$)... It adds up.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 16:10
|
|
|
Cichlidae posted:They actually tried to do this here in CT and the outcry was tremendous. That 1% tax is KILLING SMALL BUSINESS GRRRR! This is pretty much the only time I'll ever be so glad that we're so understaffed that I am the only person in the building who can do my job and my boss is the only one who can do his. edit: Here's what I said on the issue last year. Guess I was wrong GWBBQ posted:The way it's going, I'm hoping for Dan Malloy. I know from stuff around Stamford and took a public policy class he taught, and he's got a good head on his shoulders and is willing to admit when he doesn't know something and listen to others. I can say for sure that he won't pull crap like Rell is doing. GWBBQ fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Jul 16, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 16:41
|
|
|
GWBBQ posted:edit: Here's what I said on the issue last year. Guess I was wrong Nobody knew. It's all nepotism and revenge, not that Foley would've been any better.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 17:35
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:Light surface rust on rebar or mesh steel reinforcing doesn't really matter that much for most projects. When the concrete sets, the low PH and oxygen poor environment prevents further rust from forming. Yes, but pointing out that it probably won't really hurt doesn't exactly align with my rant, does it?
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 17:50
|
|
|
Here's an article on your future colleagues in action. And the followup.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2011 17:56
|
|
|
Come work in Ontario where you very rarely see your antiquated cloverleaf interchanges anymore. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2011 01:16
|
|
|
It's interesting that they built that fancy new off ramp to 34, while at the same time they are planning to change 34 from a highway to surface streets, because they realize the whole thing was a huge mistake to New Haven. (I wish they had just finished the drat thing, since getting to New Haven from the Northwest direction is painful and stop-light plagued no matter which way you go.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2011 15:03
|
|
|
smackfu posted:It's interesting that they built that fancy new off ramp to 34, while at the same time they are planning to change 34 from a highway to surface streets, because they realize the whole thing was a huge mistake to New Haven. Knocking 34 down to surface streets is the city's idea, not ours. We'd love to have a freeway through there. Even if it does end up as an avenue, we'd still need the full ramp to handle the traffic that uses it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2011 17:13
|
|
|
Hey Cichlidae, I was just looking at some old pictures I think from the 50's of some really old 8 lane highways. What struck me was that there were no lane markings at all. The closest to lanes were expansion joints more or less where lane markings should be. Did they not mark lanes back then???
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2011 17:42
|
|
|
The game "Cities in Motion" is on sale via Steam today for $6.75. Any other urban planner / transportation dorks have any experience with this game? Is it fun and/or a somewhat accurate representation of transportation systems?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2011 19:31
|
|
|
Drunk Tomato posted:The game "Cities in Motion" is on sale via Steam today for $6.75. Any other urban planner / transportation dorks have any experience with this game? Is it fun and/or a somewhat accurate representation of transportation systems? I only played the demo. It was reasonably fun although a bit short. (You can barely get a meaningful transit system up and running before the demo's time limit runs out.) What I've gathered from the thread over in Games it also doesn't have the longevity of Transport Tycoon. As for realism: The capacities of vehicles are unnaturally low, but it also takes ages for passengers to board, so it seems to be an adjustment for game balance. I believe there have been made mods that change this. Another transport sim game that might be of interest is Simutrans, by the way. It is heavily inspired by Transport Tycoon, but I find it more realistic in many ways.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2011 20:35
|
|
|
These days if you're going to play Transport Tycoon, you might as well play the http://www.openttd.org/en/ version.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2011 20:49
|
|
|
Cities in motion is a solid little game and is fairly "realistic", everything's just scaled down. They take cities of millions and scale them down to a city of a few thousand, and they lower the capacities of vehicles to match. Every single person in the game is constantly doing something and makes fairly intelligent pathing choices, so they had to keep the numbers down. It also has an editor that you can make your own cities in. Actually I haven't played this game in ages, I might want to pick it back up. It's cheap and decent. I just wish there were even some light "simcity" elements to it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2011 23:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 00:25 |
|
|
Baronjutter posted:Hey Cichlidae, I was just looking at some old pictures I think from the 50's of some really old 8 lane highways. What struck me was that there were no lane markings at all. The closest to lanes were expansion joints more or less where lane markings should be. Did they not mark lanes back then??? Lane markings weren't commonplace until a while later. Centerlines came first, beginning in Marquette Township, Michigan, and lane lines weren't developed until later. The first MUTCD came out decades earlier, but even now, it's common to see roads that don't follow it.  Danish goonsSomeone want to help me translate my CV and this job application?
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2011 00:32
|
|