By Scott Shephard
14th Avenue water tower project (Watertown, SD)
My goal yesterday was to try to get a couple closer looks at the work that is going on at the water tower south of our house. However, I was disappointed to see that the skirting that surrounds the structure had been raised. But just as I parked and started to get my drone ready to fly, the skirting started to go down. Lucky me!
And, to my surprise, there were people up on top of the water tower working to secure the covering that goes over the top. Very lucky me!
I have a couple observations:
First, the struts you see surrounding the bulb of the tower are for the lines that raise and lower the skirting. I don’t think they are intended to catch a worker who might slip and fall. The workers have safety lines that are intended to catch them, though they would be left hanging.
Second, this is the kind of job that you’d have to love. If you had any fear of heights, water tower painter is not your kind of employment.
Check out the photo below to get a sense of how workers get to the top. There is a platform that goes up and down. At the top, there is a ladder, which is how they get all the way up. Late yesterday, the platform was down and all that I could see was the ladder hanging there.
I don’t know about you, but I get queasy going up a ladder like this when I am trying to clean the eaves on our house.
To see the whole collection of photos I took yesterday, check out this link.