SITE DESK
Fifty Tonne Of Boom Pumping 200 An Hour Over The Back Left Is Held Up By An Excavator Bucket Because The Ground Won't Stop Trying To Fall In
BACK LEFT OUTRIGGER — Fifty tonne of steel is hanging over a linehand's head, pushing 200 an hour, and the only thing between the back left leg and a very bad afternoon is a 50 tonne excavator bucket shoved underneath it so the dirt doesn't give up and fall in. That is the job. That is the whole job. Nobody in the photo is panicking, which tells you everything about who they are.
The 50-metre boom is working over the back left with the leg planted on the bucket like it was built for it. The ground out here has opinions, and the opinion is that it would like to go through the floor. The bucket is the counter-argument.
"People reckon this is easy," said one linehand, standing well clear of the leg and fully aware of the maths. "Try it with a fifty tonne weight over your head and a bucket as your only mate. It's not yoga, it's not pattycake, and nobody's getting a dance lesson out of it."
A site engineer who has never put a pad on anything softer than carpet called the setup "unconventional". The crew called it Tuesday.
The slab will get the credit. The bucket will get nothing. As always, the heaviest worker on site is the one nobody thanks.
Satire, obviously.PumpLife is a satirical publication about the concrete pumping and concrete industry. The stories here are made up for a laugh and are not statements of fact. Any resemblance to a real operator, concreter, pump or smoko is a coincidence.
