ENR's "2017 Year in Construction" Photo Contest Winners
The 2017 ENR Photo Contest benefits from the proliferation of cameras on jobsites and the continuing improvement in their technical capabilities, but the contest judges still find that the standout images are touched by artfulness, skill, planning, attention to detail and a strong sensibility for construction safety. Please enjoy the 2017 winners gallery!
Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, Hudson River, New York
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Photographer: Zachary Stokes
Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, Hudson River, New York
Submitted by Nichole Pace, marketing supervisor, Stokes Creative Group
While documenting construction of the replacement bridge project for Tappan Zee Constructors, Stokes found a vantage on a gantry above the roadway to capture the waterproofing process. He waited as workers neared and used a tripod to put the camera over the edge, keeping the walkway out of view. It stood out because of the “vibrant colors of the waterproofing material,” and the shadow “worked out perfectly,” he says.
Distribution Warehouse, Monee, Ill.
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Photographer: Matt Lyon
Distribution Warehouse, Monee, Ill.
Submitted by Brittany Dweck, marketing director, Uplift Data Partners
It was another day taking aerial shots of a client’s site when Uplift Data Partners’ head pilot, Matt Lyon, decided to get a second drone up to capture the moment. “We were about 10 to 20 feet apart, at 250 feet up,” he says. “I took three or four shots in a row and hoped I got the right one—it was real windy that day. But I got the drone, the horizon, and the project in. It’s one of my favorite shots.”
South Concourse West, Salt Lake City International Airport, Salt Lake City
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Photographer and Submitter: Sue Zaybal
South Concourse West, Salt Lake City International Airport, Salt Lake City
Photographer Sue Zaybal had been standing at ground level to document how crews with Malcolm Drilling shored up an excavation in a high-water-table area. But it wasn’t until she put on her mud boots and got down into the 15-ft-deep hole with the workers that she was able to “capture the right feel,” she says. Sensing a dramatic scene, Zaybal put her shutter on automatic just before one of the workers took a bad step in the slippery mixture of mud and grout. She says, “Going to his knees with the heavy drill casing on his shoulder, his co-worker never wavered, supporting the ‘end of the log,’ which allowed him to regain his posture and keep going like nothing happened.” Zaybal says she is passionate about capturing the trials and tribulations of construction crews because “in three years, when the terminal is open, nobody will have a clue what some of these guys did and the work it took to get there.”
Oroville Dam Spillway, Butte County, Calif.
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Photographer and Submitter: Ian Bright
Oroville Dam Spillway, Butte County, Calif.
The photographer, an art director for Operating Engineers Union Local No. 3, came out to take photos of the site where several hundred union members work every day for main contractor Kiewit and other companies on emergency repairs, erosion control and dredging. Bright was halfway down the scarred hillside at mid-morning when he saw the pressure-washing preparation underway—a technique he had heard was used in the Gold Rush days. He used the “tilt-shift” technique, which makes large scenes look miniaturized by creating a “very narrow field of focus, bracketing the main subject.” Bright applied a tilt-shift filter during post-processing.
Penn Medicine Pavilion, Philadelphia
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Photographer: Michael Burlando
Penn Medicine Pavilion, Philadelphia
Submitted by Kate Robertson, LF Driscoll marketing manager
A project quality manager for LF Driscoll, Burlando was walking his two young daughters to visit his wife, a nurse practitioner at Penn Medicine, on Halloween. The trio paused on a long glass pedestrian bridge overlooking the jobsite for the hospital’s $1.5-billion Pavilion project LF Driscoll is building as part of the PennFIRST joint venture. Dressed for Halloween as a cardiologist and a heart, the children “were captivated by the construction and stopped to watch,” Burlando says. “I couldn’t pull them away, so I snapped this shot.”
World Trade Center ‘sphere’ Reinstallation, New York City
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Photographer and Submitter: Joe Goodwin
World Trade Center ‘Sphere’ Reinstallation, New York City
Submitted by Art Sferlazzo, business development director, R. Baker & Son
“It was rather emotional,” is how Joe Goodwin, a partner at rigging contractor R. Baker & Son, describes the move of Fritz Koenig’s iconic Sphere sculpture, damaged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, from its temporary setting nearby back to the WTC site. Goodwin “saw how beautiful the buildings looked in the background” and snapped the photo, using his iPhone 5 camera. A specialist in moving monuments, Goodwin also had installed his father’s damaged fire truck and a WTC antenna in the WTC’s 9/11 museum. Before the lift, Goodwin—with permission—had written “Never Again” inside the 25-ft-dia Sphere.
Guilford Water Reservoir Improvements, Baltimore
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Photographer: Rick Tisa
Guilford Water Reservoir Improvements, Baltimore
Submitted by Alex Homer, marketing coordinator, Allan Myers
Tisa, a general superintendant with Allan Myers, took this drone photo of the construction footprint for a prestressed-concrete water tank primarily for routine project documentation. But the judges were struck by the intriguing pattern formed by the drilled concrete foundation shafts and soil stabilization against the darker yellow earth. The photo resembles a Tibetan mandala sand painting, they said. This is one of two 240-ft-dia tanks being built on the site, which includes outlets, piping, a gravity inlet and site reconstruction.
Harvard University, Smith Campus Center, Cambridge, Mass.
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Photographer: Robert Umenhofer
Harvard University, Smith Campus Center, Cambridge, Mass.
Submitted by Helen Novak, communications specialist, Consigli Construction
Morning exercise on Consigli projects includes Stretch-and-Flex for all workers to reduce injuries. “It’s impressive that all the trades buy into this,” Umenhofer says. “I chose a high vantage point to show just how many folks got involved.” He says Consigli started it several years ago with the site super leading all the subs. “The room is much quieter than you would think. The leader calls it out, [and] when they change feet you can hear the shuffling. Then they get into the stretch, and it’s quiet again.”
MacArthur Commons, Oakland, Calif.
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Photographer: George Baker
MacArthur Commons, Oakland, Calif.
Submitted by Nancy Ly, marketing coordinator, Build Group Inc.
Baker says he always tries to get shots his client can use for internal reports, “but then I like to use those opportunities to create exciting images that might be more abstract, but timeless, to apply to the general vision and brand of the company.” He says he enjoys this image because it shows stages of the project in progress and also gives a nod to its location: The concrete flows look like the cinder-cone lava flows common in the northwestern part of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Northern California.
E34 Repaving Project, Antwerp, Belgium
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Photographer and Submitter: Erwin Tecqmenne
E34 Repaving Project, Antwerp, Belgium
Tecqmenne used an Acecore Neo drone with his Canon camera to take this shot of crews of a joint venture of Aswebo and Colas repaving E34 in Belgium. “I liked the contrast of the new black tarmac and the pale underlay,” he says. “To get the desired composition, I waited until all the steamrollers came together.” The approximately $10-million project replaces pavement along a 9-kilometer stretch between Lille and Turnhout.
Central Subway Project, San Francisco
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Photographer and Submitter: Robert Pierce
Central Subway Project, San Francisco
For seven years, photographer Robert Pierce has been documenting the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s $1.6-billion Central Subway project. Here, with his camera mounted with a 50mm prime lens, Pierce watched patiently as the lighting and number of workers in his frame varied as they performed prep work for constructing a concrete slab. His patience and physical positioning paid off handsomely in the photo shown at left. “The workers really fascinate me more than anything else,” Pierce says. “I try to tell the story of the workers, what they do and how they do it. The sort of surreal nature of the workscape is probably what I find most fascinating.”
State Route 99 Tunnel, Seattle
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Photographer and Submitter: Catherine Bassetti
State Route 99 Tunnel, Seattle
A Seattle native who lived in Spain for many years, Bassetti has been a freelance contract photographer for 25 years. This shot captured welder Marcel Ouedraogo, an immigrant from Burkina Faso, doing oxylance cutting on portions of the Bertha TBM in order to remove it. This shot was directly inside the pit, 85 ft below ground, on the last days of cutting and lifting out chunks of the machine. “I rarely use filters, I prefer natural light, as in this shot—no flash,” says Bassetti. “Similar to shooting theater or dance on stage, I find the best light is already there. You get the intricate light, midtones and shadows. In this case, it worked well with the steam, the sulfur bursts, the welding, torching, and gear people were wearing.”
Rundførbi Wastewater Treatment Plant, Copenhagen, Denmark
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Photographer and Submitter: Erik Mårtensson
Rundførbi Wastewater Treatment Plant, Copenhagen, Denmark
Mårtensson was shooting on a tight schedule one day in June when he toured five projects in the Copenhagen area. The wastewater treatment plant was one of the smaller projects he shot that day. Mårtensson says that after he quickly photographed the underground concrete work, “a detail caught my eye, and when I looked up the last man before me was heading up the ladder to the surface. All I had to do was to press the shutter.” Mårtensson added, “The projects that make the best images aren’t always the largest bridges or the most daring architectures.”
Fort Bliss Replacement Hospital, El Paso, Texas
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Photographer: Scott Weaver
Fort Bliss Replacement Hospital, El Paso, Texas
Submitted by Weston Shadrock, project manager, Shadrock & Williams Masonry
Mario Aldama applies a calculated rap to set stone cladding on part of a 1.1-million-sq-ft campus replacing the William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss. It is one of the largest masonry projects in North America, says the submitter, whose firm is managing the stone work. Weaver, who was asked by Shadrock to concentrate on workers, says he was amazed by how the intensely organized project ultimately comes down to highly professional, dedicated individuals focusing on their work, day after day. Despite harsh backlight, with expert editing and reflections off the tan stone, Weaver got the shot with natural light and no fill-flash required.
Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, Dare County, N.C.
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Photographer: Wes Snyder
Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, Dare County, N.C.
Submitted by Heather Yount, communications specialist, PCL Civil Constructors Inc.
Photographer Wes Snyder had a vision of capturing the replacement Bonner Bridge—the Outer Banks’ newest landmark—with the Milky Way above. But like many ideas, the execution proved difficult. Snyder needed a moonless night and—more problematic—a construction-free and boat-free evening to capture the stars above the bridge being built by PCL. Snyder staked out a spot on a rock wall bank, about a quarter-mile from the bridge, for an ideal vantage point from which to photograph the segmental precast bridge. He visited the site multiple times over two months hoping to get the shot, but he was thwarted by clouds and lights from tugboats and construction equipment. Finally, on Sept. 24, Snyder got his chance. He arrived and said he was “elated” to see bridge work wasn’t happening. While there were lights to the right and left of the bridge, he got his clear and memorable shot of the Milky Way above the new bridge at Oregon Inlet. The passing cars helped light up the bridge for Snyder and he took a 25-second exposure at ISO 2000 with the lens stopped to f3.
Tall Hall, Nashville, Tenn.
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Photographer: Rick Smith
Tall Hall, Nashville, Tenn.
Submitted by Wendy Whittemore, owner, Aerial Innovations of Tennessee Inc.
R.C. Mathews, the contractor building Belmont University’s Tall Hall Dormitory project, hired Smith to photograph an early-morning concrete pour in late fall. “The morning was very foggy, and since the project was already topped out and on top of a hill, it made for a surreal effect of being above the clouds,” Smith says. “The sunrise gave great opportunities for a silhouette of the worker in the distance.”
Ballpark Village, San Diego
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Photographer: Tim Mcauliffe
Ballpark Village, San Diego
Submitted by Jon Sansom, creative director, Morley Builders
Taken with an iPhone 7, this shot depicts of one of the most difficult parts of the concrete work at Ballpark Village: accomplishing a cantilevered concrete roof deck on a high-rise. McAuliffe stood at the south edge of the concrete working deck at level 34 to capture a shot of carpenters building a deck that extends beyond the edge of the building. “This operation was a well-thought-out plan with safety as a priority due to the fall hazards associated with working beyond the edge of the building perimeter,” says McAuliffe, who was inspired “to capture a photo I could send to the carpenters performing this work, as this was not an easy task and a piece of work [in which they should] really take pride.”
Bridge Implosion, Route 213, High Falls, N.Y.
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Photographer and Submitter: Dennis Lee
Bridge implosion, Route 213, High Falls, N.Y.
A bridge replacement project in High Falls began with the implosion of an existing bridge over Rondout Creek on Jan. 25, 2017. Lee set up three cameras around the blast. The camera that captured this shot was on a tripod with an intervalometer taking one frame per second, starting 10 to 15 minutes before the explosion. He says he used a Nikon D700—a slightly older model—and an older lens “because a camera set this close to the blast zone could get hit by debris.”
Power Plant Maintenance, Juliette, Ga.
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Photographer: Nick Grancharoff
Power Plant Maintenance, Juliette, Ga.
Submitted by Jen Jonas, digital brand manager, Zachry Group
At this coal-fired plant, where Zachry provides maintenance support, the vantage of a window across from one through which welder Cody Crumpton was inspecting a coal pulverizer provides “the feeling of being inside [its] very inhuman environment,” says Grancharoff, a company photographer. He asked Crumpton to move his flashlight until “reflections lit the grinders and just enough light bounced back to create highlights on his face.” For the cavernous feel in the confined space, Grancharoff used a Canon 16-35mm f4.0 wide- angle lens, “cranked my ISO to 12800 and held as steady as I could, shooting wide open at 1⁄20 of a second.”
Halls River Road Bridge, Homosassa, Fla.
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Photographer: Chris Steponaitis
Halls River Road Bridge, Homosassa, Fla.
Submitted by Thomas Cadenazzi, Astaldi Construction
Returning to work after a long weekend last spring, Astaldi’s crane operator saw an osprey, a state-protected species, repeatedly landing on the tip of his crane. Astaldi hired Aerial Drone Services by TAS to investigate and document what was going on. “We had to determine whether there was an osprey in a nest with eggs—without disturbing the bird,” says drone operator Steponaitis. “We knew this was going to be touchy; we didn’t have time to sit around and observe. We did what we had to do and we were out of there.” Astaldi shut down work on one end of the bridge and, over the next two weeks, lined up a nest-relocation expert and built a platform for the purpose, but on the day of the move, a hawk ate the egg. Astaldi’s lessons learned: Put a flag and a beacon on the tip of the crane and lower the boom over weekends. The delay was covered in the contract, which was extended 19 days.
Gerald Desmond Replacement Bridge, Long Beach, Calif.
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Photographer and Submitter: Marie Tagudena
Gerald Desmond Replacement Bridge, Long Beach, Calif.
In the information submitted with her photo of a welder affixing a catwalk to a brace tying the tower crane in the center of the photo to a cable-stay bridge tower, Tagudena marveled at how fearless the worker seemed, perched at work 400 ft in the air. That raised the question of where she had stood to get the shot. She says she was near the top of a ladder leaning from a work platform on the bridge tower to the catwalk. “It was kind of daunting,” she admits. She has been shooting construction for 41⁄2 years. “I love it. I love the feel, the dirt, I like seeing the men work and everything coming from nothing to something. I think it’s amazing to see what comes out of the ground.” The bridge project is a joint venture of Shimmick (AECOM)/FCC/Impregilo (SFI).
Concrete Parapets, Expressway Programme, Doha, Qatar
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Photographer: Paul Kavanagh
Concrete Parapets, Expressway Programme, Doha, Qatar
Submitted by Pascale Lemelin, graphic designer, KBR
Though he always had a passion for still photography, professional shutterbug Paul Kavanagh, owner of IFVP Ltd., in Babar, Bahrain, started out in cinematography—covering news stories all over the globe. He eventually fell in love with the Middle East, where he has been working for more than 30 years. “The magnetism of still photography got stronger and stronger, eventually leading me to specialize in construction,” says Kavanagh, who has documented more than 80 projects. The image of the concrete parapets in Qatar was taken by chance from a lift, raised 20 meters to get a shot of a bridge. Kavanagh turned around, saw the storage-yard scene, and captured it.
Waterpark Frame Erection, Monticello, N.Y.
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Photographer and Submitter: Paul knapick
Waterpark Frame Erection, Monticello, N.Y.
Knapick joined BBL Construction in 1999 and rose to assistant superintendent before the Albany, N.Y.-based general contractor laid him off during an economic slowdown. “I didn’t really have the personality to be a good super, but I loved construction photography,” he says. When BBL offered him a staff-photographer job, Knapick jumped at the chance. He flies across the country to document projects, but this Catskills casino site was within driving distance. “Joining roof sections against a blue sky made the shot,” he says.
Hallmark Card Warehouse Demolition, Enfield, Conn.
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Photographer/Submitter: Stephen Setteducati
Hallmark Card Warehouse Demolition, Enfield, Conn.
SetteDucati studied architecture at Wentworth Institute of Technology, graduating near the top of his class. “But it was the early ’90s, and nobody was hiring,” he says. His faculty advisor looked at his slides from a semester in Venice and told him, “You should give this photography thing a try.” Shortly after he began documenting Boston’s Big Dig, he landed clients in Boston’s engineering and architecture community and has never looked back. Shooting a Costello dismantling job, he captured the careful deconstruction of a rail-mounted retrieval system that left exterior walls intact.
Dominion Energy Office Tower, Richmond, Va.
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Photographer and Submitter: Matthew Huntley
Dominion Energy Office Tower, Richmond, Va.
Tax attorney Huntley says, “Photography is my favorite hobby. I enjoy the calming effect it has on me, and it gives me an artistic outlet.” This 20-story office building is only blocks from his office, and he took this shot during a lunch break. “When I shot this, I enjoyed the geometry and lines and such of the exposed beams and floors. I lined the shot up to include the worker, who appeared to be taking a break and looking out over the city.” Huntley adds, “It seemed to me he was looking for a moment of peace and solitude in the midst of a gigantic construction site. I thought black-and-white brought out the details of the structure.”
Meydenbauer Bay Park, Bellevue, Wash.
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Photographer: Will Austin
Meydenbauer Bay Park, Bellevue, Wash.
Submitted by Ashley Kimberley, director of marketing, IMCO Construction
Austin says he waited for better light at the end of a summer work day to take this shot of a project along Lake Washington, east of Seattle. Crews drive an 18-in. steel pile for a trestle and a floating dock that IMCO Construction is installing in phase 1 of Meydenbauer Bay Park. Also visible are the concrete and formwork for a new beach house. Austin says,“I took the photo from the top of the hillside looking down at the water a few hundred feet away.”
Laborer, Concrete Pour, Pleasanton, Calif.
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Photographer: Everett Rosette
Laborer, Concrete Pour, Pleasanton, Calif.
Submitted by Haley Hirai, Marketing, DPR Construction
The intensity of DPR’s largest self-performed concrete pour at a cast-in-place concrete office structure—an epic 11-hour, 4,800-cu-yd pour—is captured in the focus and determination of company laborer Ed Pratt, says Rosette, a DPR project manager. Rosette, who started shooting at 3 a.m., says he saw “something special” in Pratt’s concrete-splattered hardhat and safety glasses as the union member and 12-year DPR veteran operated a backpack concrete vibrator on site to ensure proper concrete adherence to rebar in the mat foundation. This was one of the last photos Rosette took that day. The contractor’s 5,726-person workforce includes 3,077 craft workers.
Workers in Column at San Joaquin River Viaduct, Fresno, Calif.
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Photographer: Daniel Galvin
Workers in Column at San Joaquin River Viaduct, Fresno, Calif.
Submitted by Justin Chechourka, multimedia manager, High Speed Rail Authority
Galvin captured this shot of a crew of ironworkers at the San Joaquin River Viaduct on May 10, 2017, using a Nikon D90 with a 18-105mm zoom lens, shot at f8 and 1⁄250, zoomed to 92mm and ISO set at 160. These ironworkers were building a rebar cage to be used in the construction of support piers for the viaduct, which crosses the San Joaquin River and a freight line. “I liked the way the workers were all framed within the telescoping circle of steel rebar, and zooming in flattened the depth of field,” Galvin says.
Doha Arches, Qatar
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Photographer: Abshar Kader
Doha Arches, Qatar
Submitted by Pascale Lemelin, senior graphics designer, KBR
The Doha Arches, a 100.5-m-tall by 145-m-wide, 9,300-ton steel monument, is “a testament to Qatar’s vision, unity and strength” during a crisis caused by the blockade imposed by neighboring Arab states last June, says submitter Lemelin. Not only is it a challenge to build, it’s a challenge to photograph, too. Because of the blockade, Qatar has made it “almost impossible” to fly drones, so Kader got special permission to ascend a crane just as it finished the last pick to shoot from above.
Salesforce Tower, San Francisco
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Photographer and Submitter: Joseph Blum
Salesforce Tower, San Francisco
A thousand feet above the city, union ironworkers position diagonal trusses near the top of Salesforce Tower, San Francisco’s tallest building. As crews installed the structural steel, they circled the tower in a counterclockwise direction. That allowed Blum to use his Nikon D700 and a wide-angle lens to capture each installation against a different section of the city. Here ironworkers Daniel Chatelain and Kris Palmaccio stand on a header truss with San Francisco’s western panorama as backdrop. Blum says, “I try to get behind the scenes on how these things are made, these things that are sometimes taken for granted.”
Google Campus, Mountain View, Calif.
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Photographer and Submitter: Ross McIntire
Google Campus, Mountain View, Calif.
McIntire says he went to the site of this building under construction on Google’s Mountain View, Calif., campus specifically to shoot a big concrete placement. “As a former construction laborer, leaving the shovel and returning with a camera was instantly rewarding,” McIntire says. “I took advantage of my access to shoot from every angle possible.” He shot this photo from a nearby stairway, which gave him time to set up the shot.
McIntire adds, “I captured similar moments from this angle, but timing the [placement of the] shovel made this the photograph I wanted. I love the contrast of texture throughout the concrete in the photo.”
Fab Shop Abrasive Pipe Blasting, Moss Point, Miss.
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Photographer: Nick Grancharoff
Fab Shop Abrasive Pipe Blasting, Moss Point, Miss.
Submitted by Jen Jonas, digital brand manager, Zachry Group
Equipment operator Marcus McClain demonstrates for Zachry photographer Grancharoff a blasting cabinet used at a pipe-fabrication plant to contain abrasive materials and debris during pipe preparation and cleaning. The inside-cabinet view, Grancharoff notes, “is a perspective human eyes would never see while the cabinet is in operation.” He says his biggest challenge in getting the shot was balancing the bright light inside the cabinet, which was lit by flood lamps, with the natural light Marcus was shielding with his body.”
DC Water’s Potomac Pumping Station Rehabilitation Phase III, Washington, D.C.
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Photographer: Russ Chunn
DC Water’s Potomac Pumping Station Rehabilitation Phase III, Washington, D.C.
Submitted by Reg Godin, talent director, American Contracting & Environmental Services, Inc.
This photo of a job well done was snapped by Russ Chunn, superintendent for American Contracting & Environmental Services, on his iPhone 6s after his crew had replaced the sixth of eight 18,000-lb valves in the pumping station. The task required a custom-built gantry and cart to move the valves around existing equipment. Chunn says the work is “physically and mentally stressful.” He adds that he took the photo from a catwalk above and submitted it to show how proud he is of his workers, who included the managers and craftworkers in this photo.
Delaware River Natural-Gas Pipeline Replacement, Paulsboro, N.J., to Delaware County, Pa.
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Photographer and Submitter: Ralph “Ozzie” Oswald
Delaware River Natural-Gas Pipeline Replacement, Paulsboro, N.J., to Delaware County, Pa.
When photographer Ozzie Oswald is on assignment at a construction site, he focuses first on progress photos or other subjects a client wants recorded. Then, Oswald says, he looks for “more creative” images on the site. One hazy day last June, on assignment from STV Inc. at a natural-gas pipeline project, two welders concentrating on their task caught Oswald’s eye. He says he loved the image’s composition. And, he adds, “I love the helmets.”
Fort Bliss Hospital Replacement Project, El Paso, Texas
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Photographer: Scott Weaver
Fort Bliss Hospital Replacement Project, El Paso, Texas
Submitted by Weston Shadrock, project manager, Shadrock & Williams Masonry
In one of two winning photos from the same shoot (see p. 37), Weaver focused on Jorge Garcia as he set block. “You can see in his face the dedication and years of experience,” Weaver says. “I told Weston Shadrock his people just impressed me so much. Just to think of working that many hours by yourself, day after day.” Weaver shot with two hand-held cameras to switch lenses rapidly without opening his cameras, to prevent dust from infiltrating them. He also relied on natural light. To Weaver, photography involves “a lot of working with what you’re handed.” He adds, “You just have to deal with it.”
Metro Regional Connector, Los Angeles
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Photographer: Kristoffer Marchi
Metro Regional Connector, Los Angeles
Submitted by Jay Weisberger, VP, communications, Skanska
On a visit to the U.S. from Sweden, Skanska photographer Marchi was surprised to find “Angeli,” the machine boring the Metro Regional Connector’s twin tubes, at rest after completing the first tunnel. “We were lucky. You get the size of it when it’s not cramped in the tunnel working,” Marchi says of the 22-ft-dia machine. Marchi says that, given the relatively small number of women in construction, it is noteworthy that the image has three, including an engineer and site manager for the $1.7-billion project.
Sewer Inspection, San Francisco
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Photographer and Submitter: Robin Scheswohl
Sewer Inspection, San Francisco
Robin Scheswohl, a photographer for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, knows what a tight spot looks like after following sewer service worker Fred Gonzales into one of San Francisco’s 1860s-era masonry sewer lines. The agency needs to prioritize the lines that need repair. “It was very humid, and I had to wipe the lens as the cockroaches and a rat walked by,” she says. Forget about squeezing into the less-than-4-ft-wide space with another lens or a tripod. “We were only in there five to 10 minutes, crouching the whole time. You had to work fast” to get the shot and then get out, Scheswohl adds. The city treats an average of 60 million gallons of water on dry days and 575 million gallons when it rains.