Great gig! The operating engineers were great guys when I worked as a summer electrician's apprentice for Local 3 IBEW in '98 at Sotheby's on the East Side.
Originally Posted by
Giacomo 1
I'm an Operating Engineer.
I know, what's that?
We operate and maintain all the heavy equipment on construction sites. We run everything from tower cranes to excavators, bulldozers, backhoes, loaders, asphalt spreaders, milling machines, and the list goes on and on. Not a bad career, but staying employed can be a challenge as we're really beholden to how well the economy is doing.
I've been on big and small jobs, from water mains to skyscrapers, or 800ft down digging the NYC water tunnels to the Madison Square Garden demo and rebuild, but my greatest project was the demolition of Yankee Stadium, easily my favorite job in my 30 years. I loved being a part of that history, and we had an audience everyday as fans came to pay their final respects. There are plenty of YouTube videos of the job, and here are a couple of my favorites -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-veEAKcjqY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ACOsoZ0S5Y