Oldschool and experience is always a tough nut to "crack".

TLDR: Construction company does not listen to all warnings of old expert and fires him, then discovers that he was right all this way.

This story starts approximately 5 years ago in a construction company I was working in. Main guy of this story is an old topography surveyor (TS) let's call him Ken (60yo at the moment), it is possible you have seen them with a strange camera looking like equipment on a big tripod, they are making most of the surface measurements and giving so called points and areas where to start building.

Backstory.

At first steps of any construction these TSs start special measuring of area of construction to make executive survey, where they are defining area of construction site and giving initial points and areas where to start digging process for foundations.

And our hero Ken was main TS guy from the beginning of construction, he was one of the most experienced and well-respected specialists in construction. Everybody was seeking some advice from him and his opinion was always on point and as we call "best practice". His experience had a huge impact on every workflow he was engaged in, and works were done in time and with minimal financial and man-hour spent. I joined construction and met him first when foundations were ready. As a beginner I was seeking guidance in some works I have never faced, and Ken was always willing to help. His knowledge was immense, and he was always describing every bit of information with huge package of details, examples, geometrical formulas and theories. I can surely say that his information and the way he delivered it was one of main reasons I started to love construction overall. His signature tool to use all his knowledge and to be more efficient was a notebook he was always keeping with him. This notebook was a total treasure for everyone who loves geometry and construction with schemes, plots, formulas, drawings and calculations. He told me that he always starts a new notebook in a beginning of any construction and fills it with every task he was involved in. Starting from massive supporting pillars up to a single brick that must be placed in certain place for some reason and why it was placed. And knowing that all significant work can not be done without his involvement you can imagine this notebook was a main source of information during backtracking everything that was done in case there was an issue of flaw.

Strike 1.

During construction of one of technical underground tunnels that connected two buildings he was first to indicate that there could be a problem in future if there will be any heavy works performed on a ground level. He indicated that if there will be anything other than grass and trees this tunnel can cause problems and can be unstable and dangerous to use even if it is a technical tunnel where only pipes and electrical cables, but there is still a room for technician for maintenance and repairs. Everybody heard what he has said and as it is mostly talks about future and now present, they said that it is going to be ok and there are not any plans to build any kind of objects on a ground level above this tunnel. He noted that in his notebook and continued his work.

Strike 2.

Due to the poor time management and rush of all works especially when you have long channel dug up to build this tunnel that cuts half of construction site, concrete works were on a high pace without proper time for concrete to fully solidify. He indicated that again that stability will be poor if you make it on a high pace, but project management thought it is better to listen to young concrete experts rather than Ken. For this time notebook filled up with real wall thickness, real density of steel bars and real concrete drying process.

Strike 3.

End of project and everybody are waiting for massive reductions especially on fields that not needed anymore, first of all concrete workers that knew about all concrete structures. Then management decided to cut their expenses firing all workers with high salaries. And in this list, there was our Ken that was surprised because he stated that there will be a real need of executive survey of finished building and digital drawings with real values after finishing the project before acceptance. He was informed that “as build” drawing won’t be necessary because they can easily use project drawings for this matter for economy. He held his chin up took his belongings and especially that notebook of his with all information. I stayed in this company for a year then it was time for me to go also. But I kept in touch with my first mentor.

Build-up.

2 years after city decides to build a road between those two buildings for better access to parking lots. Project was given to other construction company that is known only for building roads and guess who was at the moment their main TS guy, of course it was Ken. On the paper road was easy build but Ken knew about that tunnel and state in which it was build. Ken as a proper worker told to management that there is a tunnel that can be crushed if road will be build on top of it. Before you build a road, you need to flatten the surface of landscape, then properly compact ground and then fill it up with several layers of various materials in order to make this road stable to stress and nature and all this is performed by heavy machinery. Ken’s new company decides to ask for documentation about this tunnel and they reach to warranty department of Ken’s former company, because the building itself as well as this tunnel was under 5 years warranty as per contact. Answer comes in time with attached drawings of this tunnel and expertise that it can withstand all heavy stress caused by road building machinery. What can possibly go wrong if you have all papers that shows that everything is fine, and it is good to go. Management decides to be easy on a section of a road where tunnel crosses road, they work with maximum care and safety. By Ken’s own words “This tunnel is standing literally on good faith”. Then one rainy night everything that can go wrong went wrong. Of course, tunnel’s structure couldn’t withstand proper knocking on a ceiling but heavy compactor for a long time and rain that immensely weighted soil on top of that tunnel. Tunnel was crushed and his own concrete walls destroyed all pipes and electrical cables of connected buildings.

Revenge.

As per warranty former construction company of Ken was responsible for all damages, but it tried to do everything to transfer all guilt to road construction company. Stating that tunnel must withstand standard road building equipment and that Ken’s company must have used more heavier equipment and machinery and etc.

This was the time when it comes to Ken and his magic notebook with all real values, drawings and data that was crucial to whole case. Nothing could destroy this pillar of pure facts and numbers with indication of all aspects of what was done in this tunnel and all commentaries written about how it was created. Investigation of independent experts that were working on collapsed tunnel solidified all statements taken from this notebook and confirmed all mistakes that was done by builder of tunnel.

Construction company is still operating but on a really low projects and it is a matter of time when it will close its doors.

Ken is now happily retired and enjoying his most beloved hobby of chess, road company gave him a good raise after that incident, and he stayed up until the end of project with huge farewell bonus.