Massive Dirty Job

Where's Mike Rowe when you need him? While that phrase would strike fear in the hearts of most of us, if we heard it in reference to our jobs, the fellows who pulled off this massive dirty job could have easily said as much.

So, did you just go and read the article?

No?

All right, fine, I'll give you the basic idea. In Milwaukee, they have a massive sewer system that needed to be cleared of debris--18 years worth of debris, to be exact. Think about 18 years worth of all those bags, soda bottles, etc, that you see getting swept into storm drains. That's a lot of junk, right? Then have it in a sewer, where you have to worry about gasses, and making sure the methane gas monitors, hydrogen sulfide gas monitors are doing their job.  Huge fans were turned on weeks beforehand to circulate the air within the tunnels, so that the methane gas transmitters and hydrogen gas transmitters could figure out when the levels were safe. Then these guys had to install antennas so that they could maintain communications, and employ the use of snow machine-esque loaders and movers so they could get the trash out.  And all of it, including the workers themselves, had to be lowered into the gaping pit via a crane. Fun stuff, right? And no, none of this was for a tv show, this was just a general maintaince issue.  It was all so that your street doesn't flood, the next time it rains.

Makes me glad that nothing in my job requires me to be lowered into giant pits by cranes.  I'm just sayin.