5 Men, 5 Machines, 5 Hours – That’s how much manpower and time it takes to replace a fire hydrant.
Primed, painted, out-of-order!
Our county, in its eminent wisdom, recently primed all the fire hydrants on our street them gave them their traditional orange topcoat. Then they put a collar around it that said “out-of-order”.
Appears in perfect condition but doesn’t actually work.
Unfortunately they could not start the work because there was poison ivy growing near the hydrant so one morning Charlie went out and cleared the vines and weeds. (Please realize this hydrant is NOT on our property NOR is it the one used if we have a fire.)
The street and surrounding property was marked with white spray paint symbols.
Then one Saturday morning a crew of at least five men showed up with tons of big machinery on flatbed trucks. Finally after looking at the fire plug for half an hour they started to dig.
First the backhoe started to dig.
The roots of a hydrant go deep and in addition to machine digging the men had to use shovels to unearth the pipe connections.
The pile comprised of dirt from around the hydrant grew larger and larger.
Finally the plug was replaced and the finishing touches were made.
See all the men resetting the new hydrant.
While the finishing crew were working on our hydrant the digging crew replaced the other hydrants farther up the street.
The new hydrant is somehow not as stately as the old one.
The new hydrant is in place and surrounded by straw.
My climbing hydrangea at the edge of the property (to the right of the hydrant) was mangled in the process.
And a lot of dirt was left on the road which will no doubt be washed away by the rains from Hurricane Sandy.
The road is muddy but the hydrant is in working order.
We’re happy to know the neighborhood’s fire hydrants have been replaced and ready to protect us against fire.
Do you covet having a big machine and team of workers to help with your projects?
