Chinese Welders

Now the Chinese have taken quite a lot of lack for the delays in the bridge due to welding issues.  And the deserve some of it, but since I like to play Devil's advocate, here are a few frames to put things into perspective:

Now here is a fairly common scene, three guy s watching, one woman working.  All the inspectors here agree that the women are much better welders.  Which is a statement given the nature of this group.

The next two pictures are more "day in the life" kind of things, until you realize they do this 12 hours a day.

Grinding, lots of grinding.

Cutting, a lot of that too.

Now it gets a bit more serious:

These two folks (one male, one female) are inside the confined space of a tower shaft during Vertical Trial Assembly.  Poor ventilation, poor lighting, and sparks flying everywhere.  Not fun.  Did I mention 12 hours a day?

And it gets better.  The next two photos are of two welders working on the East Line grillage.  The grillage is a super-critical part of the cable system that supports and aligns the cable as it turns under the bridge into the east end anchor.

Yes, they are arc welding.  In a narrow gap between heavy metal plates.  Oh, and I did mention preheating...  those 100mm plates they are squeezed between have been heated to 160C (320F).  There have been issues, but this is not easy work, it takes skill and stamina.

One last detail.  Now I have no way to verify this, but it is my understanding that the average welder at ZPMC gets paid room, board, and 60RMB per day.  Workers on this project get a premium 80RMB per day..  80RMB is $12.30, per day.