How a Growth Mindset Is Key to Boosting Your Concrete Injection Business

Opublikowano: 12 August 2020 Reading time: 39 minutes

Welcome to the 10th episode of the Concrete Injection Made Easy Podcast! Wow, what a milestone!. I’m thrilled this project has come this far. The overwhelming positive feedback I’ve received is super-charging me to move forward and provide more content to benefit you, my listeners. Today’s episode is especially interesting because it goes beyond a technical level and shows the importance of having an attitude that encourages personal and business growth and development.

So tune in, subscribe, and leverage this podcast to move you forward on your journey of personal and business development.

Hamid’s experience in sealing a challenging leak is a perfect example of approaching a concrete injection job with a growth mindset. In the episode, he describes the challenges and specifics of the job and the extraordinary steps he had to take, including new things he had to be willing to try, in order to overcome those difficulties. His story is fascinating both on a technical and personal development level.

 

Thanks to Hamid’s growth-oriented approach, he was willing to seek out support, optimize his strategy in the face of new information, and take decisions that turned a challenge into a huge success. 

 

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From the #010 episode of Concrete Injection Made Easy podcast you will find out:

  • that you should visit the site of the future construction before starting work
  • that you should be prepared for changes while you are doing your job
  • that you may find that you will have to drill elsewhere despite your plans
  • that the experience gathered from many previous construction sites gives enormous self-confidence and a competitive advantage
  • there’s no shame in asking questions
  • that taking the challenge with confidence in your own abilities can reach the top
  • that only planning a positive future makes sense, because only this can bring positive results**
  • that an open mind is needed in every industry, in injection also although this expression is used rather in new technologies and not on construction sites – it’s time to change it!
  • how to prepare yourself for a big project

**Make sure to check out the book “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future” by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters – this is where the first time I heard about planning a positive future, not a negative one.

Quick info about the tunnel injection project for transferring water to the Gjoocham dam:

The total length of the tunnel is 12 km
The inside diameter of the tunnel is 3 m
Outside diameter is 3.7 m
Segment thickness is 20 cm
The segments type is universal
The thickness of plastic grout is 15cm
TBM type is EPB double shields for 6 bar pressure
The cutter head is mix shield: it has cutter disks and knives
Overburden is between 50 m to 450m
Geology in the tunnel is variously changed from clay, sandstone, marl, karstic zones, fault zones
Geographically this area has huge amounts of rainfall and water tables are so rich

 

 

 

Tuday’s Guest

Hamid Sohrabi

Hamid is a responsible and experienced engineer who has worked as a construction manager on many construction sites, including the construction sites of the meta station in Tehran.
As he said himself, in 2004 he saw what can be achieved in the technology of pressure injection. Now, after years of gathering experience, he was sure that he would also be able to complete the assigned task.
He specializes in underground construction and in pressure injection technologies leading to the repair and sealing of these structures.
His statements reveal a lot of knowledge, professional language, and attention to detail.
I am sure that we will hear about Hamid’s achievements in the field of pressure injection more than once. If someone is sometimes in doubt whether the injection is working at all, talk to a specialist, someone who feels this topic like no one else.
If you want to contact Hamid, this is the link to his account on LinkedIn, Hamid Sohrabi. Please mention that you’ve heard this interview in your inviting note.

Resources

TDS of an injection resin PUR-O-STOP FS used to seal the leakage in the tunnel

Hamid Sohrabi – email
Hamid Sohrabi on Facebook
Location of the tunnel on Google Maps

 

#010 YouTube trailer of the podcast episode 

 

Transcription

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 #010 How a Growth Mindset Is Key to Boosting Your Concrete Injection Business. 

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

tunnel, leakage, packer, injection, project, pump, tbm, inject, material, area, drill, segments, water, huge amount, problem, decided, Iran, meter, minutes

SPEAKERS

Mateusz Furs, Hamid Sohrabi

 

Mateusz Furs 

 

Welcome to the 10th episode of the Concrete Injection Made Easy Podcast! Wow, what a milestone! 

 

I’m thrilled this project has come this far. The overwhelming positive feedback I’ve received is super-charging me to move forward and provide more content to benefit you, my listeners.

PONIŻEJ WKLEJAMY ROZWINIĘCIE

Today’s episode is especially interesting because it goes beyond a technical level and shows the importance of having an attitude that encourages personal and business growth and development.

 

In the episode, I talk to Hamid Sohrabi, Project Manager of SCI Group from Iran. He’s a fantastic example of the importance of bringing a growth mindset to concrete injection, and to business more broadly.

 

A growth mindset, as opposed to a fixed mindset, is about having a desire to learn new things versus fear of new experiences. Embracing new challenges versus shying away from difficulties. Seeking out new information even at the risk of appearing inexperienced versus staying stuck within your limited comfort zone.

 

It’s also about being willing to take a risk because you believe failure is an opportunity to develop. It’s about persistence in the face of setbacks and seeing effort and obstacles as a path to mastery.

 

Hamid’s experience in sealing a challenging leak is a perfect example of approaching a concrete injection job with a growth mindset. In the episode he describes the challenges and specifics of the job and the extraordinary steps he had to take, including new things he had to be willing to try, in order to overcome those difficulties. His story is fascinating both on a technical and personal development level.

 

Thanks to Hamid’s growth-oriented approach, he was willing to seek out support, optimize his strategy in the face of new information, and take decisions that turned a challenge into a huge success. 

 

So tune in, subscribe, and leverage this podcast to move you forward on your journey of personal and business development.

 

Hello, Hamid, how are you doing today?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Hi, Mateusz. I’m fine. Everything is okay. And thank you for connecting me and connecting me for this conversation.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Are you serious? You got a huge and great story to tell to all of us, so you know, when I realized that you were preparing for this for this job site, I already knew that I would love to have this conversation. So thank you very much for finding your time to spend this almost hour with me and discuss this job site. So all right, I’m in Warsaw, Poland, you are in Iran, but where exactly?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah, I am now in Tehran, the main location capital of Iran. And we have some projects here, but our main projects are located in the provinces live in south of Iran, in north of Iran and in the west of Iran.

 

Mateusz Furs 

huh? So you travel a lot to get to your job sites?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah, yeah. 

 

Mateusz Furs 

OK, Around two and a half months ago, I guess it was more or less this this amount of time ago. You mentioned on LinkedIn that you are preparing the to inject into the tunnel to make it watertight. Can you tell us a little bit about the project and then we will step by step, discuss the preparations and later execution of this injection itself. So, what was the problem? Where is the tunnel? If you could, you know, tell us a little bit about this project?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah, two months ago, one of my friends called me and told me there is a project, a tunnel project. That is located in the west of Iran. It’s a water transfer tunnel, the length of tunnel was more than 10 kilometer and they start to…They started this project more than five years ago. There was there was a lots of lots of problems in this front panel because the location of this project was located on a fractured area, the there are loose matter in the line of the tunnel. And when he called me they have a huge problem because during the excavation they meet, they met a huge amount of water at the time, more than 160 liter per second when 

 

Mateusz Furs 

Wow, nice shower, right?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah, and the project was stuck and they they called my my friend but  he didn’t have the the exact material and equipments. So he called me and we have a meeting we had a meeting with the client and they decided to send me to visit the project. We get we got there and we take some photos and some movies and as you remember I sent some of them for you because we want to negotiate together and make decision for this project. So the length of this tunnel, as I told 10,800 meter the total length of the tunnel. At the length of 9 kilometers, 9000 meters, it’s this problem has accured and the, the outer diameter of the excavation is 3.7 meter and the final diameter and the inner diameter is three meter. Because of this it’s, it’s a very bad situation for working because this channel is mechanized and the TPM and ppbv EPB TBM inside the tunnel. It was very, very close area with a smaller area and it’s too hard to work in it. Now as if you have this tunnel in between designs capacity is five cubic meters per second and lengths of segments is one 1.2 meter. The ring  includes of six piece of the segments and the thickness of the segments was 20 centimeter.

 

Mateusz Furs 

So, once again the whole ring the whole ring consists of six pieces, right?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

 6 pcs. Yeah. The universal one. Yeah.

 

Mateusz Furs 

How how long this preparation phase, you know lasted? You only once you were only once on the, in the tunnel to see it before you start the injection or how many times?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

After visiting we… the negotiations and prepariation of this project. It lasts more than two weeks because we have to find an exact material. As we negotiate, I decided to choose MC-inject 2700. But we can’t find it in the in Iran and so we decided to choose another one, the TPH PUR-O-STOP FS. If they are saying but in TPS matters on with the amount of accelerator we can set, set the setting time. It was very perfect for this pproject.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Yeah well when the material allows you to to add some sub components to set the time of reaction as you want you are given another control over the injection process. Yeah. All right. One of the movie or even two of them, but I you know, looking at the movie I was looking for like injection packers, you know to imagine myself the steps, steps you have taken in order to stop the water. Did you? Did you plan where exactly you’re going to drill when you visited the place before you started? Or you started to drill like, well, what will happen? will happen during the injection. 

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

No the at the test as we discussed together, I decided to drill some holes in the downside of the downside of the leakage area. Because this matterial when it contacts with the water, it’s it’s make some foams and the foams goes up. But when we arrive to the job site we drill more than 20 holes in the bottom of the bench of the tunnel, but all of them were dry because…

 

Mateusz Furs 

So, where’s the leakage?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

The leakage was at the top side of the tunnel but all of the drilled holes in the bottom all of them are dry and It’s amazing for me. So then we discussed with the operator and the engineers in the site, and they told me they’re cutterhead because we are leakage area is near to the face after time as near to the cutterhead. And I asked him, is there any pressure in the cutterhead? They told me No. But I told them, if it’s dry, please open the cutterhead. I want to check it. But when they started to open it, it’s impossible because at that time, we realized that the sensors of the cutterhead has some faults and don’t show they doesn’t….

 

Mateusz Furs 

They dind’t show the exact situation. Yeah,

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

yeah. We we called some markers, some, some markers and when they start to rotate, rotate the cutter head, the huge amount of water comes out. And when we open the chamber of the cutter head, we saw a huge amount of water comes inside from the both sides left and right. And it shows that the it’s it’s not a one place for leakage. It’s a line it’s zone it’s a length of the leakage area of more than I think 20 meter length of the tunnel inside the saturated area. So in the next day, we decided to take out one piece of segments the first one because it’s, it’s on the shield but the tail of the brush the brush of the shield of the TBM past has the best centimeter the no excuse me 15 centimeter from the last one. So we decided to take it out and when we took it out, we show we see at the top of the tunnel we have the gap something like 15 centimeter gap in the top of the tunnel. And this gap is accurate because the TBM stocks more than for five months and cutterhead grows down and it caused off the cause big gap The top side of the tunnel so

 

Mateusz Furs 

there’s gapping Excuse me, I need to ask someone to check if I understand you correctly. So the gap was between the the tubbings yeah the tunnel itself the prefabricated parts of the tunnel and the drilled ground?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

No, the grout that it was injected between the segment and the ground. All right, okay. Mm hmm the grout was there but it has 15 centimeter of gap between a girl and now I get chills because that location is located in the soft ground. Gray and brown marl. It’s so s…. and it’s like mud. It doesn’t has hardness. It’s too soft and After five months the TBM was going down and everything is stucked.

 

Mateusz Furs 

one of the movie shows that you and some your team members I guess because I’ve seen at least two or three people inside and you could see this cutting head. So you are already in the in this chamber you this you this just five, five minutes ago and so you are exactly in this chamber you could take some some ground parts from between this the cutting hand. So this this movie shows like you were in you know submarine because after the attack, because there are some water leakages you can see some still in this device, huh? Wow. It’s scary movie. Really, so, don’t you afraid you and the other people that something will go wrong and you know there will be a huge leakage that will fill with water all the tunnel with seconds, within seconds.

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

At that moment after when the cotton was empty we going inside immediately and we took some samples from the face and it lasts only three minutes because after three minutes, the water comes up and everything is going down. So inside the water, after three minutes we we have only three minutes and after three minutes we immediately come out and close the chamber because right it was a huge amount of water. So after that in this in this material the PUR-O-STOP FS for MC-inject 2700. The final setting a strength of strength of the materials be so hard and you you have to avoid to inject the material inside the cutter after it our main problem  is how to inject the material and avoid to go into material inside the cutter because when it’s transferred to the transfer to cutter head everything is stucked. They are not like silicate material they are not they are not like normal polyurethanes. So the

 

Mateusz Furs 

So, MC-Inject 2700 is a duromer are so the compressive strength of the material is 170 mega Pascal’s Yeah. Yeah. There are so so hard. Yeah, that’s it. So if if you glue it, you glue it for good.

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

They use. It’s used for consolidation most of in most of areas of application. It’s used for consolidation of soft drives and loose materials. But in this project, we need to be needed for all the insulation not for consolidation.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Yeah, consolidation wasn’t wasn’t the goal. Absolutely. Yeah. So okay, so you seen it during the preparation process and then you drill holes, and there is no water. So what do you think like, Oh my God, we didn’t prepare ourself good enough or what was your first thought about this when you drill this this hole in the bottom and there was no water there? Surprise!

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah, it was so amazing and we we have had a lot of meeting there with the engineers with operators and some experienced people that they were there. But at the third or fourth day, we we had a meeting and we decided to remove the a piece of segments. First of the tunnel, that the first of the at the end of the excuse me at the end of the shield to see the problem. So, at the next day when we get the key after segment the get the degree get it out and when the amount of water the huge amount of water comes out and when we see the top, it was amazing because as I told you with, we saw a huge gap between the shield between the shield or segment and the grout, not the ground. Because the grout that they injected inside it was elastic grout. Not consolidation growth, it was soft and the tunnels ended in this length time. More than, I think, five months, the tunnel completely going downside and it’s occurred big gap between the grout and the and between the grout and the segments. So it was so dangerous because they’re the segments when they are rounded with the growth they have capability to take the force off the ground, but when they are free, they are so dangerous, but we have a good chance because the amount of water at the leakage area was released and the pressure was released and we have a good chance to, to inject and for working on it. So, at the meeting we decided to take the plate to plate at the leakage area take it out and because at the first day I decided I tried so many times to put some clothes, some slugs and some wood weight inside it but the huge amount of pressure didn’t let me to put them put this material inside it because I think the pressure at the first days more than six bars and it’s impossible to put some wood closing it yeah. Okay then then We drilled they put they installed some roll balls around the leakage area and they put a big plateon it is this still marks

 

Mateusz Furs 

Yeah, we I’ve seen a picture and on the movie that there were screwed to the tubings this still parts. So yeah, I think it will

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

you channels and creates on it so I take out only the big plates. The area of the plate was half and half a meter at one and a half meter. It’s a huge plate a day. We take it out and we put some old clothes and wirenets tiny one inside it We fill it then we put the super late on it again and we start to put some media started to put some old clothes around it for installation. Then I drilled I think five or six holes around it and three or four holes inside the plate. Mm hmm, because the top was it’s an open area and or material or material doesn’t have big foam factor. So we decided to fill inside the net and the clothes on the inside it with this matrial and I think at day number five we started to inject this material. It takes three hours and we use 250 litres of PUR-O-STOP FS fruit and 250 liters of PUR-O-STOP. Okay in three hours in three hours Yeah.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Where Where did you put the pump? Where was the injection pump? Inside the tunnel? Yeah.

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

It is inside the tunnel, more than 20-25 meter at the backline because we have we have the operator’s cabins and too many hydraulic pumps and too many equipment between the pump and the lickage area. 

 

Mateusz Furs 

Absolutely. I’ve seen the movie and there was absolutely not enough room to work to have your equipment. Yeah, so it wasn’t easy. The tunnel it wasn’t Metro tunnel so it wasn’t a big diamer. So this room wasn’t too much to really work so 25 at least 25 meters away the pump and how how what? Okay, so what was the pump?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

It was a Graco pump, it was too old but we we repair it and we changed it. Anything that needed change any part of it and and we use it It was so good the capacity of it 30 liter per minute and

 

Mateusz Furs 

Wow. So this this one was. Yeah, this is a perfect pump for for a huge leakages because you are able to pump a really significant amount of resins per one minutes right to stop the water. Yeah said how many compressed are this pump really needed to pump? 

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

We use the compressor of TPM TPM IBM because it was strong enough. The capacity of the capacity of this this compressor was 2.1 cubic meter per minutes, and the pressure was 10 Bars. 

 

Mateusz Furs 

Alright so this is it Yeah, I use compressed air of two 2.2 point five up to 3.5 in like different stuff from Atlas Copco. Well yeah and there’s between 8 and 10 bars. So, this is it and right pump works perfectly with this amount of compressed air alright. How many people work during this injection process?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

 three people but the workers of the TBM more than five people. They helped us during this operation and it takes seven days for preparation for For the watching around the TBM at the day number seven we start to injection and we stayed there three days for checking the leakage and it was okay and yesterday I called the operator. He said we started to excavation and we we are in the dry area now and there

 

Mateusz Furs 

unfortunately they are in a dry area so they won’t call you. Okay, tell me…I’ve seen I’ve seen quite an injection packer installed in the in the hole of this tubing Can you tell us a little bit about what kind of packers how many of them and like what diameter Yeah, something about packers…

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

The length of the packers was 20 centimeter from DESOI inside the inside the day there are steel packers but the huge one the inside diameter of them I think 10 or 11 millimeter the inside diameter of them and outside diameter once again. Outside was 18 millimeter right. inside diameter was 10-11 millimeter. Yeah. We used four or five piece of it around the plate and four of them inside the secret at my totally we used 10 pieces of it to manage this insulation. 

 

Mateusz Furs 

Only 10 pieces only 10 Wow. Yeah. So you pump a lot of resinthrugh each of them, right?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Okay, so after you drilled this hole and there was no water coming in, how did you choose? Once again if you could tell me exactly how did you choose and to where to drill?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

When do we took the segment out, we have good vision from the leakage area because then the top side was open and we decided to fill the gap between the segment and grout  at the leakage area. So we know that we have To work you have to work just in the leakage area because the the other sides are so open and not useful to inject material in other places. So, after this good vision we decided to to put some pakers inside the leakage area and near near to it because the other sides are not useful. Okay, they are empty with the huge amount of free area

 

Mateusz Furs 

All right. Okay, so let’s let’s discuss something about the resin because we know the pump. This is 2K pump with around 30 liters per minute. So this is huge amount of resin for what kind of resin meaning The time of reaction How did you set this? How much of this subcomponents did you put did you change the resin over time of injection?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

We decided to use the PUR-O-STOP FS it’s with accelerator. When you don’t use the accelerator in this material, you’re setting time the final setting time is something like five minutes right but when you use you can choose some various amount of accelerator but the maximum amount of the accelerator is 5%. of component A. And because of this huge amount of water, we decided to use the maximum amount of it. When you use in the maximum amount the setting time is some thing between 30 seconds to 45 seconds. It is so good. And when I started to injection for example from the downside I think I saw small a small amount of leakage of material from the downside of the plate and we put some small clothes in it step by step and when it’s closed I, I changed the injection area from the downside, to upside and for example, each of them 10 minutes or more Example 15 minutes to injection and close injection because we have to stop to set this exact area and we change it to another place at totally three hours it stopped completely and everything is there everything was okay.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Did you did you come back to the to the packer once again like after some some time like after 15 minutes, you decide to come back to the parker you have already to know which was

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

No, it was impossible because the setting time was so high and so so it had you didn’t have enough time to, for example coming back to one packet because less than one minute Everything is finished and you lose the packer because of it. I stopped, for example 5-10 or 15 seconds to put some clothes on the leakage area and I started I started immediately because I don’t want I didn’t want to lose my packers because okay. Yeah.

 

Mateusz Furs 

So this is there’s one if you if you use the pump that has one, one to add. So component A and component B and there is another flush pump that allows you to clean the mixing head. You can, you know, use this cleaning agent to flush out the packer. So the agent stays in the packer and allows you to inject this over time. even longer than that the pot life so..

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

I used it but I used it because I don’t I didn’t want to lose my mixing elements. I I used the second pump it was one component it because electrical was was at that time it was an airless pump. It is not exactly for injection into an airless pump. I only use it to empty the line of the material in mixing element

 

Mateusz Furs 

To clead the mixing head Yeah. 

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah, But I don’t I don’t I didn’t want to inject the solvents inside the leakage area because I think it lasted too long and You used it only for cleaning the line Alright, okay.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Okay. So around 10 Packers around 30 to 45 seconds of the reaction time of the resin right. And once again free hours and 250 kilograms of resin.

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah,

 

Mateusz Furs 

okay. And seven days of the preparation just before you have started, what was the like the, you know the most difficult during the injection process? Like what was the this this this point you fought: Well, maybe it won’t work? Was was this or you were sure during the whole injection process that you will manage?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

At first the space was so small and the walking in it, it was so so hard because the inner diameter of the tunnel was three meter only, and the TBM were inside there is inside the tunnel at the first after injection, our pump was so big and when we bring it inside the tunnel with a platform, we can’t put it vertical because my

 

Mateusz Furs 

Alright, so the pump was great but too big.

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah, too big, and distance between the pump and the leakage area. It’s too long. More than 25 meters. And it’s too too hard to drill the holls because as you know, there is a water there, our equipment, our drills are electrical. And we can’t drill some deep holes because the drill bit is too long and we can’t take it and use it there. The water is so cold, under 4C and everything’s in it was hard there. Everything!

 

Mateusz Furs 

so yeah, actually I wanted to ask about what kind of drills did you use. So electrical, oh my god. So if electrical at least like this batteries once, or 200 or 230 volts or so. Which ones? Not batteries?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

at the bottom there was there are there are dry areas but at the top we can’t use it. But after after took it took the segment out everything was released and we put some plastic bags around it. All right I think because we don’t have battery one and be used. We don’t have cordless one and we use the normal HILTI drillers though. Inside the place we use the oxygen to drill the hole inside the plate but around the plate we use the normal, HILTI drillers and We have a chance because the pressure and the amount of water was released and so we can drill for example five holes around the plate.

 

Mateusz Furs 

All right, so it was necessary absolutely to remove this part of the of the tunnel to release the pressure. And yeah, so the water was coming through this this big hole and not from everywhere, everywhere around. Okay, can you tell me what kind of nipple on the packer did you use?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

We take all of them out because it’s, it doesn’t let you to transfer huge amount of material inside. I, make I made a connection now and we used directly tthe hose inside the packer, we because we

 

Mateusz Furs 

I ask this question because I’ve seen on the movie The wire from the pump that was totally screwed to the packer without any nipple in between. 

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

So we don’t have any new pods because we want to transfer huge amounts of material inside the packer when the injection at the at one packer was finished. We take it out and we fasten the nipple on it because we don’t want to use it again. 

 

Mateusz Furs 

In between when you unscrew it to remove the the pressure hose. Yeah, so the resin was coming back right from the packer?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

 No,  we closed it immediately. One or two seconds. 

 

Mateusz Furs 

All right 

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

And when open the finish line to clean the Yeah, in the ….

 

Mateusz Furs 

actually no nipples, because the inner diameter of the nipple is too small so it will take much longer to inject the same amount of resin into the packer. Actually yeah, I thought  so watching this movie that you have done something like this. Great idea, by the way because it really it really allowed you to inject the resin directly from the pump into the into the parker. What you wish you knew before you started the injection?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

At the first I have to thank to you because because the first thing in this kind of projects is team working and we have to ask something experienced people like you to negotiate for negotiate about these projects. Then at this job size, we have to you have to see the situation of the project by myself because some people’s they’re told us some wrong information about the project. For example, they told me at the first day, we haven’t any pressure inside the chamber, but we took two or three days to find out that there there is there. There was a presure. Yeah. Then the safety, the safety in this project, for example, as you told we have to use some battery drillers now. Normal drillers because the safety It was so important. We have to use some good GPS because there isn’t enough space in these kinds of projects. We have to use good shields, good helmets and good clothes, good waterproof clothes because there was so cold and there isn’t enough equipment for warming after you know after swimming because you got because you have they say you know…

 

Mateusz Furs 

They say that in Iran there is quite warm. Only  on the on the surface.

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

At that area in the winter it’s snowing more than four meters at the winter. That was so cold because there is located in the mountains yeah see,

 

Mateusz Furs 

I see I think I see What is the purpose of this tunnel?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

It is the water transfer tunnel the transmitted water from the river to the Wu Chang dam in it this dam is made for agricultural purposes in the Kurdistan area in Kurdistan province and the main the main carry off the people carrier of the people there there are there are farmers and this tunnel bring huge amount of water for this purposes.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Okay, so it’s very important. I hope you will email me with the with the name of this dam and the location on Google Maps. So we will… I will put this information on this note to this to this podcast episode so everyone could see from you know, from the space on the map where where this dam is located because I couldn’t find it. I was looking for this and I couldn’t find it so I will send its information from you. So you know exactly where it where it is.  Speaking about negotiations, because this is like for every single applicator, this is important. How did you agreed that you will be paid, you will be paid for the whole project as the it is watertight and this is this and that amount of money or you are paid for like working hours and the resin being injected? Or like, what is the way of you know?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah, we, we negotiate with the client. We negotiate that with that with our client. We set the agreement that has two main issues there. We we signed the agreement with the amount of the injected material. And too many contractors went there. But I told them if I can’t solve this problem, I don’t want even a penny.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Wow.  So, that was risky.

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Yeah. But I was so I was so sure about myself because I negotiated with my friends like you and we choose the correct material, the exact material and the exact exact procedure of injection. So, because of my experience because I have more than 15 years experience in underground construction, so  I decided to take this project and I have a I have a chance and I, I did it So, everything is okay now.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Yeah, okay. So I told you actually I have commented on your post the other day that you announced that you manage the The job is done that your phone will call all night and all day and because many people really realize that you’re capable of solving this kind of situation. Was it the first project that difficult you have solved? Or did you? Like how well what made you being so sure, so self confident that you will manage to stop the water.

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

In 2004, we were in a freeway project in the north of Iran, and I was I was the beginner there. We had we we worked on a open on a single shoe TBM and we met a huge amount of water. I remember it was 14,000 liter per minute. At that time, a group comes from Minova company and they drill some holes they use pentamatic packers and they injected, it was finished at five hours. So yeah. So I remember it and I think with myself with myself that if they can do it so I can do it.

 

Mateusz Furs 

That’s it. You’ve seen it that you’ve seen what’s possible now. Well, you’ve seen what what was the most important thing. Like if you if you were to point one most important thing that helped you to To finish the project with this huge success What was it?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

I forced myself to do the problems to solve the problems I have to do it and if you you open your mind to ask some question from others from experienced people and negotiate with them I told you you have to do anything you open your mind wants the main it’s it’s the main reason that we can do because because every brain has some wanting one solution.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Yeah I love this answer. I love this answer. So you, you think that you will manage then you look for the solution. You talk to other people, you ask some questions. You gain knowledge and then you go and solve the situation. Perfect. I love it. I really I told you that I’m really happy that you you’ve done it is it also know made me to understand the problem. I’ve seen movies you know myself, I am visiting places like no one regular can go in  Metro tunnels in the middle of the night, you know, or in strange places, really strange places to see some leakages problems, cracks and so on and so on. So this our job is, is not boring, that’s for sure. But you what you have done with this injection is really, really impressive. So Many people were commenting on your post the other day. And I’m sure that many of us contractors around the world will have some questions to you when we are preparing ourselves to similar projects in the future. So you know, I hope you will also find some time to help all of us to answer some questions, you know, teeny tips. Like what kind of nipples? What nipples? NO nipples! NO nippels, they’re not not important, actually, they’re, you know, blocking you from injection the resin. So, this is it. This is the knowledge and this is the experienced, experienced guy.  What will be your, you know, your biggest Tip around on this project to every single like me, you know, company owner of this service injection company around the world, what would you What would you recommend during the preparations and then during the execution of this injection in a similar project?

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

We have to ready ourselves for change. In this project, for example, we changed our they changed or route more than four times. There isn’t any exact way to solve a problem. We have to meet it and we have to we have to ready ourselves for changing the way and if if we are we don’t close our mind and brain. We can solve any problem.

 

Mateusz Furs 

Wow. All right. I’m making notes Really? I’m making notes because this is this is absolutely absolutely great. It works not only in injection business by the way, it works everywhere. If you have open mind, then you will succeed for sure. Okay. I hope we will have some questions from our listeners. Most of the questions comes directly to me on email or on LinkedIn chat. So I will pass these questions to you. And because I really would like to have these questions being answered to everyone, because this podcast is to, you know, exchange knowledge not only ask and answer questions, but exchange the knowledge and So yeah, that will be that will be great if you have if you find some time in the future to to help me answer the questions from our listeners. Yeah. And thanks for the conversation.

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Thanks. You

 

Mateusz Furs 

know, it’s Saturday and yeah, perhaps this is the free day you have to spend with family and friends, though. Thank you for finding the time for me once again and talk to you soon. And perhaps one day where we’ll go together on a jobsite

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

I hope! Yeah, I hope your friend

 

Mateusz Furs 

If there is another tunnel, you know, call me I will love to, you know, visit your place and, you know, even though if it’s cold there in the tunnel to see it with my own eyes. Have a great day. Talk to you soon. 

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Thank you very much. See you. 

 

Mateusz Furs 

Bye bye 

 

Hamid Sohrabi 

Thank you. Bye bye

 

Mateusz Furs 

That was the conversation of the 10th episode of the podcast.

I hope you liked it.

Please let me know what should be the next episodes about? Curtain injection? epoxy resins? sealing pipe penetrations through the structure?

If you want to find out how to seal every single crack please visit www.injectionrules.com and download my Core Principles for Effective Crack Injection pdf file for free. 

Thanks for listening and I hope you tune in next time.

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