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District Shop helps former D3 colleague with equipment repairs

Proving again that who you know is sometimes more important than what you know, Steve Weiss, who left District 3 a year ago to work in the Asset Management Section at Headquarters, called on his former colleagues in the D3 shop to make some repairs to equipment. He needed the repairs in order to do his job in the Division of Engineering Services.

District 3 came through, and quickly.

"Every single major piece of equipment was broken," he lamented. In particular, the Skid Truck he uses to collect pavement data.

"The skid truck had an issue in the braking system with the data- collection trailer. The system is an air-over-hydraulic braking system with very sensitive electronics attached. We just could not get the system to develop the 1,000 psi required for the system to work properly."

Steve Weiss and Jim Poorbaugh, the Asset Management Engineer, and spent hours trying to figure out the problem, eventually determining the issue was most likely a bubble between the brake cylinder and the brake caliper. They even tried to bleed out the brake fluid, but it proved unsuccessful.

"After checking with commercial repair shops, it was going to take at least a week to get the rig into one, and who knows how many days longer to get the problem sorted out."

Instead, Weiss called on the District 3 Shop. The D3 crew not only made the repairs, but they did it fast and had a great attitude.

"I called over to D3 and asked Rusty Church if he could squeeze us in. Rusty asked Randy Jenkins to drop everything to help us out. I took the truck over on Monday afternoon, and showed Rusty what needed to be done."

Church and Jenkins swapped out the brake cylinder from the side that did function with the bad brake cylinder on the other side. They spent most of the day Tuesday bleeding the brake system before they got it working again, then had to replace all the previous brake fluid in both brake cylinders because they went through so much fluid trying to get the bubble out! After they got the system up and running, they went to the non-used side and bled that side out, too.

"Now, both side are working, and we didn't have to make any expensive purchases at the end of the budget year either," Weiss explained.

"My hat is off to that crew," Poorbaugh said. "They came together when we really needed them, and provided an invaluable service to our group. Randy even found time to swap out and balance six testing tires for us, so we could get back to data collection. They really deserve an 'Atta boy!!!'"

"They displayed a 'can-do' attitude and team spirit focused on getting the job done – irrespective of which unit they belong to."

"Their efforts are a great credit to themselves and are keeping with the highest constructive cultural values of ITD," Poorbaugh added.

"Their willingness to help got us back on the road and testing averted further delays on our data collection. It was a job well done and greatly appreciated!"