On 08/01/2010 02:35 AM, Walter Bright wrote:
BCS wrote:
I once had a fire hydrant installed on my property. The city required
an engineering analysis, which ran to quite a stack of paper. After
approval, the workers came by to install it. They never looked at the
analysis, or even the drawings, they just dug up the water main and
stuck a hydrant on it with a specialized tool they had. Done in an
hour or so.
I'd almost bet that buried somewhere in the fine print of the
"engineering analysis" was the assertion "the standard way works" or
the same things in 10 times the words.
It was painfully obvious that this was nothing more than a money-making
scheme for the water utility. It colluded with the city to get those
regs written, so they could literally quintuple the cost of a hydrant
install and one had no choice but pay.
It's possible that's the reason. Then again, regulations are often in
response to an accident. You also make a big deal about them not looking
at the analysis. Couldn't they have already seen a copy before they went
to the site? This is obviously planned work, so you'd think they'd have
a meeting beforehand.
As BCS said, if the stack of paper is due diligence with the conclusion
"the standard way works", I don't see how you can tell from your experience.
