I’m heading into the last week of my internship and I can’t believe how quickly this summer has flown by. I’ve been able to do and see so much this summer it’s crazy to think it’s only been three months. The site has changed so much since I got here. When I first arrived, we were just working on constructing the foundations for the SCR structural steel and building the fab tables for the ductwork fabrication. Since then, we’ve erected over 200 tons of steel, fit-up and welded inlet and outlet ducts, constructed a crane pad and placed 1000 cubic yards of concrete in it, and erected the massive Manitowoc 21000 crane. Having never been on a construction site before, it’s unbelievable to me what can be accomplished in just three months.
Last week I traveled to St. Louis for the Intern Summit. All of the U.S. and Canadian interns from Alberici, as well as interns from Flintco (Alberici’s sister company) attended the summit at the Alberici corporate headquarters. The night before the summit I went Go-Kart racing at Pole Position Raceway with the eight other interns out of the St. Louis office. I had never been go-kart racing before so it was really fun, even though I came in last in both races! The next day, at the summit we got to meet the Canadian and Flintco interns and it was so cool to hear about the projects they had been involved with this summer. On the first day of the summit we heard from the Market Leaders about all the different markets that Alberici serves. After a tour of headquarters, we took a bus to Hillsdale and learned about Hillsdale Fabricators and Kienlen Constructors. We got a tour of Hillsdale and the warehouse. There was some very high-tech looking equipment in Hillsdale that was being used to fabricate the steel, which was fun to watch. In the evening, we all go to go to a Cardinal’s game. Alberici got a box for the night, so we all got to eat, talk, and watch the game. A lot of Alberici full time staff came to the game too. It was awesome to have the opportunity to get to know them outside of work.
The second day of the summit began with site tours. Half of the group went to Lock & Dam 25 and the other half went to the Route 47 Bridge Project. I was in the group that went to the Bridge, and it looked like a really exciting project. In order to build the bridge, they had had to put one of their cranes on a barge on the river, which was something I had never seen before. After the site visits we went back to the office where we learned about the technology Alberici implements for their projects and we made a point-cloud scan of the conference room. The day ended with employee and returning intern panels. We learned about the employee’s backgrounds, projects, and experiences and the returning interns told us about why they decided to come back for another summer with Alberici. The panels were very helpful and relatable because we got to hear from people that were or still are in our shoes and how their careers with Alberici have grown.
After the summit I went back to Ottumwa for my last two weeks of work. I was excited to get back because the Manitowoc 21000 crane had finished being erected while I was away and I was so excited to see it. I can’t believe my summer is coming to an end, but at least I still have one more week!