A month of growth.
Had the biggest project of my career this month. 60 soil borings, 14 test pits, 25 temporary wells, 16 soil vapor points, and some 10 sediment samples. I definitely didn't do all of this myself, however I was given a lot of responsibility before I felt truly ready. I have done soil vapor the most, and have done soil logging for the soil borings only once before that. The rest was all new. You can imagine my stress.
I was in charge of half of the soil vapor points, half of the temporary wells, and half of the soil borings. I definitely feel 100% better at my ability to accurately produce reliable boring logs. This came from just the sheer amount I had to do, and all of the post work I did while prepping all of the hand-logs to be digitized. The main thing I learned is how incredibly frustrating it is when company's keep programs from individual workers. I did so much work prepping the logs that I don't understand why the company doesn't just let me input the data so that the information is not being worked on 4 or 5 times between two people creating and editing the product. What a huge waste of time. I would like it to be optional--to be able to download and create the reports myself if I felt like taking the time. Sure, you're worried about consistency throughout the company... Guess what? Even your trained techs don't do everything the same. Let me watch the same tutorial video you gave them and let me save the company money.
Anyway, some lessons learned;
○ Make sure you leave the field with a photo of the drill rig, the sand/bentonite being used, at least one completion photo of the boring/well
○ Take photos of all boring sleeves at each location. Either need to take a picture of your log with the location clearly visible, or right the boring location on a small piece of paper and include it in all the photos of that location's soil. (Seems like an easy thing to think about, but stuff gets moving and you rush to keep up with the drillers/project.)
○ To save time/stress on the back end, you have to do more work when you get home that night :/
○ When you get home, write up the logs on your laptop and send them to whoever is making the logs. But before that, you should have prepped them with how many logs you needed, over what time period, and that you would be sending new ones each night for the next day. gINT is pretty simple, the units are just copy pasted into boxes. So write up the text from the field. This is going to cover your ass if you didn't write the exact color code, or plasticity in the field because you will still remember, have the photos to compare to, and will internalize the regional soils at that site which will help in the future.
○ If the logs have wells included, know the diameter of the PVC, where the screen is being placed, and clearly mark on the log the depth of the slotted screen. This seems like common sense, but check with the drillers that you actually are on the same page with where the screen is located and how long the screen is. My drillers were only using 5 ft screens and I found that out later. Whereas the other drill rigs were using 10 ft screens.
○ You can sample from hand augered soils but make sure the PM is okay with disturbed soils. Or, if you hand augered for fear of hitting utilities and you don't hit or see anything, then drill another location near the first and sample from that.
○ Try to keep referencing new soils to any noticed trends/patterns in locations of stained soils, debris, etc. You need to work on the story/explanation from day 1.
○ Note on the soil log the depth interval (SB09_6-7) of where you collected soil. Too many inconsistencies with a sample named SB04-11 where you could start the sample at 11 ft, end at 11ft, or 11 ft is the middle of the sample. You'd think they'd teach a standardized way but that I've found out is not the case. Also I'd recommend staying away from half foot increments if at all possible. Makes the back end look better.
○ Test pits need very clear detailed descriptions of soils encountered and a drawn cross-section. Note where you took samples and if those samples include foreign items/materials.
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