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Bridge Inspection BlogDecember 7, 2009 The Bridge Inspection Report - A Legal Document
It all starts with your note taking skills. Our objective should be to reduce or eliminate any questions or confusion caused by our note taking. Whether your note is an exact dimension of a defect and location or a general note meant to encompass several comparable defects, make sure it conveys the information as you intended it. Write complete, concise, thorough, and accurate notes, and when possible, document them with photos. Eliminate any words that may imply or construe a different meaning than what is intended. Eliminate assumptions, speculation, or cause; just report verifiable facts. Take section loss as an example. Unless you have the proper documentation, don’t estimate the section loss of a member, unless you think you can convince an attorney that your eyes have been calibrated to make such observations. When it comes to photos, be conscious of what you capture (including what may be in the background). Don’t incriminate yourself or others by accidently capturing – usually in the background – a vehicle that may appear to be parked without proper MOT or another inspector on your team without the proper safety gear. If you use checklists, make sure you really do use them. An incomplete checklist gives more ammunition to discredit you, or even worse, is checking off something that you didn't do. Putting checkmarks on a checklist can be routine…you know you covered everything, so you check off everything on the checklist. Don’t fall into this routine! Stop and read each item, making sure your checklist accurately reflects what you did or didn't do. Then go back and make sure you complete any missing items. This is not an attempt to create paranoia when it comes to inspection and note taking, but rather to enhance our consciousness of how we write field notes and how they may be interpreted. Our objective shouldn't be to avoid a stressful courtroom scenario – if it happens, it will most likely be caused by circumstances out of our control – but rather to be in a more comfortable, confident position to explain and/or defend our actions, if needed. September 28, 2009 It's Dark in Here and It Smells Funny Too... September 2, 2009 A day in the life of an Infrastructure Engineer is seldom what would be considered traditional engineering - and so it was for the Infrastructure Engineers' underwater inspection team in Alaska. Performing work under a contract that the firm has held for six years, the underwater inspection team, led by a professional engineer-commercial diver, was tasked with conducting the underwater inspection of 19 ferry terminals and bridges for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (AKDOT&PF) in July and August of 2009. These structures were located along the Aleutian Chain of islands and in the Arctic Circle in western Alaska. The team was presented daily challenges to overcome. A 53-foot live-aboard charter boat was hired to transport the divers from facility to facility along the Aleutian Chain. The Aleutians are located at the intersection of the North Pacific and Bering Seas, which produce some of the most severe weather in the world. One of the inspection locations, Dutch Harbor, is known to have only 6 to 10 clear, calm days a year. True to its reputation, the weather conditions that the team had to overcome was literally horrendous. The team experienced gale force winds with gusts up to 90mph, heavy bone chilling rain, extremely dense fog and clouds, and sea swells up to 20 feet high. Several times during the "adventure" the team had to hold up in a protected cove for several days until the wind and waves calmed. However, this weather did not deter the Infrastructure Engineers inspection team. They were able to overcome each of the challenges presented to them and perform all of the required underwater inspections in this wild and scenic corner of America. Although the team was not bringing in the million-dollar crab catches that the popular Discovery Channel show "The Deadliest Catch" does on a regular basis, the team was traversing some of the same waters in order to keep the traveling public safe, once again demonstrating that everyday at Infrastructure Engineers is a new challenge and not your average traditional engineering day. June 25, 2009 Over the course of my 22 year career I have had the opportunity to work with some of the best commercial divers and structural engineers in the underwater bridge inspection industry. I have tried to learn from each person I have worked with, and teach young engineers when given the chance. What I have found is that the best underwater structure inspectors have some of the same characteristics. I believe each of these exceptional underwater inspectors share similar education and experiences, which gives them a competitive edge and puts them at the top of their game. This guide will tell you how to improve your underwater bridge inspection skills and become an exceptional underwater bridge Step 1: Find a Mentor – If your firm does not have a formal mentor program, find a successful underwater inspector you respect and ask them to be your mentor. They should be available to answer questions about diving procedures, equipment, and underwater inspection techniques. They do not have to be in your firm, but it would sure help. Step 2: Get Good Diver Training – I am not going to give you a magic amount of training here. ADCI has minimum standards, and that is generally a good place to start. There is a group of engineers in our industry that are attempting to reduce training requirements through ASCE. As a member of ASCE, I do not support this effort. I am still trying to figure out why an engineering organization is trying to develop a standard to train divers. Good training pays for itself the first time you are in life threatening situation (as a diver or supervisor). I have been diving or supervising divers on six occasions when life threatening situations developed (both as an Army diver and civilian commercial diver). My training allowed me to deal with the emergency safely. Don’t take a shortcut. Step 3: Get Good Diving Equipment – This doesn't mean buy the most expensive. However, you must be completely confident in your equipment and your ability to use it if you are going to be an exceptional underwater inspector (see Step 2 above). If you are worried about your survival you won’t be concentrating on your inspection. You owe this to your client and your fellow employees. If your employer does not consider good equipment a priority, find a new employer. Step 4: Get As Much Bridge Inspection Training as Possible – Take all the NHI bridge inspection and scour classes you can. Participate in Web-based training. Attend technical conferences. Read articles and books on the subject. Step 5: Learn to Write Technical Documents –Engineering schools need to do a better job teaching technical writing. If this is your weakness, you can take some good online courses to improve your skills. Your supervisors will notice, and it will give you an advantage over other engineers. Step 6: Be a Good Teammate – Short of being a professional athlete, there are few professions that require people to work effectively together like commercial diving does (yes, underwater structural inspection is commercial diving, refer to the OSHA commentary if you don’t believe me). Every time you enter the water, your life is literally in the hands of another person on the surface. There is no room for personal agendas and turf wars on the dive station. Your self-serving ways may fly under the radar for awhile, but you need to be a good teammate to be successful in the long term. Step 7: Take Care of Your Body – Commercial diving is physically demanding. Underwater structure inspection can be the most physically demanding segment of the commercial diving industry (please don’t send me hate mail, saturation divers). I get to spend less time in the field now that I am more “mature”, and have corporate responsibilities. I try to stay physically fit so when I do get to go to the field, I can show the young engineers “how it is done” and NOT injure myself. Step 8: Be Conscientious in Your Work - As the underwater inspector, you are the only person looking at a critical component of a structure. The client and public are relying on you. Be honest, do your job the right way, admit when you make mistakes, and correct them. Never try to cover up a mistake. I immediately fire inspectors that cover up mistakes (only had to do this a couple of times, and I don’t like it). I always appreciate and respect inspectors that admit when they make a mistake. Step 9: Be Open Minded to New Technology – I have seen a number of major technological advances occur in the underwater structure inspection industry over the past 22 years. I have resisted some, which was a mistake. Resisting change or a new technology will damage your competitive advantage. One of your competitors will figure out how to use the technology to beat you. Step 10: Be Patient - Young inspectors always want to advance quickly. To truly become an exceptional underwater inspector, you need to inspect a lot of different structures in many different environments. These experiences are critical and only come with time. If you’re good, you will advance, but as I mentioned, it takes time and numerous types of inspections to become an exceptional underwater inspector.
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As bridge inspectors – working out in the elements, traveling on the road, staying
organized and meeting schedules – the last thing on our minds is having to explain or defend in court what we just did. But if a bridge you inspected experiences some sort of unfortunate failure, you could find yourself in just this situation. The notes, mark-ups, sketches, photos, and even that comment you wrote sideways in the margin can and most likely will be scrutinized by the legal professional whose objective may be to discredit you.
Perhaps some of us have already experienced the awkward, stressful, and uncomfortable feeling of “I hope they don’t ask about that” or “why didn’t I write that differently”? It’s a given…if it’s in their best interest, they will attempt to interpret your notes to their advantage. I’m sure we have all, at one time or another in our careers, had difficulty interpreting our own notes. 
We have had false alarms with our gas monitors during inspections. We had to stop what we were doing and proceed to the nearest exit due to a sensor being bad. We have had times where our vendor would hand-deliver a replacement to us just to keep us on schedule. I have had to stop what I was doing and bring my monitor out as a spare to another inspection team in our firm because theirs stopped working. Each time, we have taken the alarm seriously, regrouped, assessed the nature of the alarm and either resumed where we left off, or saved the inspection for another day. A false alarm is better than an alarm that you can't respond to or protect yourself from due to the quick onset of unconsciousness and potentially, death.
