China, Korea and Japan, I presume.

I associated it with the Bridge in Cali with all of the cracked welds so they rewrote the acceptance criteria to say that cracked welds are now OK, and searched for an inspection company that would buy off on that after firing the group of inspectors who found all of these bad welds which were placed by a fabricator in China.

I have several friends that are and were working on this project. People are being let go if they don't play by "the new rules" that are not in compliance with the applicable code and job specifications. That is how I have come to my conclusion.

Hey Joey,

I just realized that response may have been at me. Actually I 1st certified as a CWI in 1990. Thus I was 26. Where did you take your course at ?

I have taken the complete exam 3 times and passed it without anything other than self study and thus have paid NOTHING for mine. Therefore I agree that your certifications are much more valuable than mine.

Does that meet up to your scrutiny ? I mean I would hate to not meet up to your requirements . Being the internet and all, that is so important.

So I guess you win that bet. We can put that on your "permanent record" .

High tech welding of rebar...Hmmmm, all these years I thought just twisting wire around each joint was strong enough.

jrw159

Let say your role is a TPI or Client Rep:

You mentioned: LOL, Lets just say that some of the locations listed are not well known for their quality and safety standards.

My Reply :  Prior to your departure date, you must ask for all the information that you'll need (eg, contract documents, drawings, job briefing, safety requirements, site condition, contact person, proper PPE, laptop, camera, soft copy of codes / std etc). Plan in advance, get some ideas on what you will expect at site. Set your mind that the worksite you will visit is a lousy place. If you reached the worksite unprepared, then that will be the start of headache.

You mentioned: The headaches would not result from the easy part of doing my job, but rather the resulting crys of dispair when they have to do it right.

My Reply: If you fail to highlight the problems that need urgent attention..., then that will be a big headache. Contact immediately you supervisor / manager / customer to inform on current site conditions. Inform them that work delay is eminent due to poor quality of work. You must tell the facts and don't exaggerate the situation. Anyway, what else you can do? Remember that you are not part of the contactor's organization and it's not your obligation to solve the problem for them.

You mentioned: I can see it already, I put in my report, the foreman goes to jibber jabbering and my translator comes to me and says, "He say we do like that for many year, why it no good now?" And my reply, "See the applicable code in sectionX X.XX.X and you will see that you have been doing it incorrectly for years." And I do not even want to think about the possible nightmare that could be lying in wait in the form of welder qualifications, if they even have them.

My Reply: Simple, don't talk much to the foreman! Don't give them an opportunity to compromise. You can show the contract document that you have. But it is not necessary for you to teach or to show what section of the code is applicable. You will surely have a headache of doing that. (I think you don't want to hear later from them this....."you told me this one but you never tell me to use the other one" why are you rejecting our work? We already followed your advise on the code section you told us!!)

By right you should be the one to ask for their QC personnel on what section of code they are using (do a bit of auditing / review on QC reports).  Tell the foreman (or In-house QC) that you have your comprehensive reports (plain English is preferable) with photos as evidence. You can ask your translator to fax / email immediately your report / NCR / rejection notice to the factory manager, don't delay, you should do it before you leave the factory. If the factory manager called to ask you on how to settle the problem, tell him/her politely to get an expert personnel from their headquarter to rectify the problem so as to meet the requirements stated in the contract document. (is it CAWISAKI? Sounds new to me, there is a Kawasaki steel factory in China and the headquarter is in Japan). If it's a Japanese company, they will surely send a representative from Japan if the non-conformance cannot be solved by local people. Always remember to be polite and low-profile but you must be firmed to your decision. This China people will surely cooperate with you because they need to collect payment from their Client.

After you rejected the items, you can have a peace of mind and nice sleep in the hotel. Don't accept gifts or even invitation for night outings; use an alibi that you have alcohol allergy. It will be a big headache once you start to accept all the gifts, food, drinks & woman. In China, surely they are many entertainment. Many woman in the bar are beautiful (same as in Thailand), surely you will be tempted once you go.  

You mentioned : I would be interested in seeing some of the pictures you mention. 

Reply : I'm worried that you may not be able to sleep or eat once you've seen those photos. Some of those photos were taken on fatal accident occurred during pneumatic test of pressure vessel.

Bye, I'll be away for many many days to Smokey Mountain.... to dig for recycle cans, nead to earn a living....LOL.

Joey D Poor

I might look into this job.  There is no way in hell I would go there, maybe when I get some experience.  I wonder since it is Caltrop, if the foremen and other key personnel are Americans.  That would make the CWI job easier to have paisans in control.  With the inspector reporting in a common language with supervisors and foreman would make it much easier.  And also the original add said bridge componant project for Dept of Transportation.  Are those parts coming here or being used there?  This "could" be a sweet gig.