Flight Plans

The Saint Mary’s hospital project was pretty much typical for hospital construction; all steel and all very heavy gauges. We had to weld everything together. Once the fireproofing was complete, the mechanical trades moved in with their large and heavy ductwork and piping. And once they had filled the overhead spaces, it was our turn to construct the walls. Easier said then done, as we could barely see the deck above, let alone put our framing in place. It was slow going and every day we cursed the planners that had scheduled our framing as one of the last activities on the flow charts.

There were days when a crew of 3 might be able to build 10 feet of wall in 8 hours. We frequently had to abandon our scaffolds and climb up onto the ductwork itself to do our work. And we had to wear welding ‘leathers’ to avoid being burned by all of the hot sparks that would shower us in those confined spaces. There was nothing quite like being far above the ground, up in the attic space, in the basement, wearing a leather jacket during a hot Reno summer. It was quite easy to keep the weight off!

But, rank has some privileges and once in awhile, someone from another trade would have a question and I would climb down and we would go out to the trailer to review the plans. And invariably, as soon as I spread the plans out on the table, the emergency helicopter would come in for a landing or power up for a takeoff. The only space available for locating our construction trailer was right next to the helipad and that meant that I had to quickly run around the trailer and shut all of the windows before all of my plans and notes took flight as well. What fun!