Silica Rule

When I'm out on construction sites, many time I see guys cutting concrete without wetting the saw to keep the dust down and I immediately remove myself from the area and put on my dust mask. Often, a dusk mask to the guys cutting the concrete and surprisingly most of the time they refuse the …

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The 40th Floor

There is an 8 inch water main providing water to a 50 story building with a operating pressure of 60 PSI. What is the static pressure on a fixture 40 feet above the water main. Basically, the question is asking what is the water pressure on the fixture on the 40th floor? This is a …

Converting from Feet to PSI

When covering from feet to PSI you will need to know that 1 foot head of water equals .433 psi. In the utility field and maybe other fields you maybe asked to calculate the pressure at the bottom of a column of water that extends a number of feet high. Let say you have a …

Water Pressure

Water weighs more than air, so it exerts a greater force which is measured in pounds per square inch(PSI). A gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds and there are 7.48 gallons of water in a cubic foot. If you were to multiply the weight of a gallons of water by the number of gallon in …

Excavation

You won a bid you install a sewer line but in order to install this line you must dig a trench. You must dig a trench that is 4.5 feet wide, 965 feet long and 8 feet deep. How many cubic yards of soil must be excavated for the water main to be installed? Length …

Fourth Grade Math

Currently, I'm studying to take the state underground utility contractor test and recently I was reviewing the construction math portion of the material. It was pertaining to Area of a trapezoid, the volume of a cylinder, circumference of a circle, radius, and diameter. I've never had any issue throughout my schooling with math, so I …

Service Line Repair

On April 26, 2017, I received a call from a customer stating that the grass in front of her house is saturated with water and the area is turning to muck. I asked her if her if she had watered her grass in the last couple days and she told me no, as a matter …

Corrosion Protection

   Protecting underground infrastructure from corrosion is another way to ensure reliable water service to the utility’s customers.  Corrosion can contribute to water main breaks, especially in ductile iron pipes.  Corrosion is caused by many things such as the soil composition the pipe is placed in, the structural integrity of the pipe when it was …

Current Ratio

The current ratio is a liquidity ratio that measures whether a company has enough resources to meet its short-term obligations.  Short term obligation refers to any financial obligation that is due within the next 12 months period or fiscal year.  It compares a company’s current assets to its current liabilities. Current Assets-any asset that can be converted into cash value within the next 12 …

Break Even

Your company produces 962 units of output per year (units of output could be anything). Each unit has a production cost of $3,599.00. Your company is able to produce these units because it has in place an infrastructure which costs $15,423.00 per month to maintain. How much would the company have to sell each unit …