ENGINEERS AT HEIGHT

[Kyle Dew, structural engineer, Thornton Tomasetti] The first couple times you do it, it’s definitely nerve-wracking. Because you’re clipped into ropes, but then you have to, like, climb up. And then as you’re climbing over, you’re looking down. And if you’re on a building that’s 60 stories high, you definitely get some of those initial jitters, but honestly, once you’re sitting in the harness on the ropes, you’re completely secure. So, it’s really all of like a mental barrier that you just have to get past.

So, we’re currently at 425 Fifth Avenue in New York City. What we’re doing here today with the facade inspection, I would classify as quality control, is we’re making sure that everything with the building is safe. And—or—if it’s not safe, then we have a plan to make it safe.

For what we do, we have our iPads or any sort of note-taking device so that if we see a condition on the side of a building, we can mark it up, take photos of it, so that when we go back to the office, we have all the conditions that we’re looking for documented.

We have to perform an inspection every 60 feet on center. However, if I’m just on the ropes here, I can see kind of like five feet this way, five feet this way. But because we’re not doing inspections until 60 feet, I have a little bit of play because I’m on the ropes, so I can kind of move side to side. So, you know, it’s kind of like pushing off. And because you have the swing, sometimes you’ll push in the opposite direction, so that on the swing back, you can get a little bit more momentum to then grab on to something, then grab the iPad, take a couple of photos, swing back, document it, and then continue down.

I heard about the rope access program because a couple of my coworkers got certified. They started doing it. And then, as soon as I heard about it, you know, I immediately thought, “I want to get certified, I want to do this.”

I mean, I’ve always enjoyed just being outside and doing things with my hands. And then I’ve been rock climbing just outdoors, indoors, all around, probably since I was like seven or eight.

This is a great view.

I get varied reactions. There’s obviously like, there’s people that are like, “Oh, that’s awesome. That sounds like so much fun.” And then there’s the opposite, of like, “Don’t! I don’t want to see any pictures. I don't want to know about it. Stop talking to me.”

Fifth Avenue here is a really wide street, and I think I got some footage from up at the top. This one long street going through the middle of the city, and that is interesting just seeing it from a bird’s eye view. It’s like not many people get to see what I’m seeing. This kind of the fact that I can do this as my job is great, and I love it.