Faces of the Diversion: Daniel Veillette

Daniel Veillette: [00:00:14] My name is Daniel Veillette. I am the general superintendent over self-performed bridges for ASN Constructors here in Fargo, North Dakota. Self-performed bridges are bridges that we build ourself in-house at ASN.

[00:00:32] What I do, I start in the morning… I obviously can’t show up at all the jobs in the morning for all the safety meetings, but we have a JSA safety meeting on every job whether we’re starting at 6:00 or 7:00, and I do attend one every day. We talk about issues, we talk about safety, we talk about needs. So it’s more than just a safety meeting, it’s 15 minutes of everybody together. Everybody has a chance to speak, say whatever they want if there’s any concerns.

[00:01:04] From there I would go start making my rounds to all the jobs and just make sure everybody has what they need. I spend time in the office once I make my rounds in the field. I’ve got a couple field offices out here and go over plans, do our needs requests, whatever anybody needs. I support all the superintendents, all the foremen, and all the labor, what they need to make the job a success.

[00:01:30] Right now I have two superintendents, three foremen. This bridge behind me, we have probably 12 carpenters, miscellaneous trade people on this bridge. I have two other bridges that are ongoing right now with a total of about 10 people between those two bridges in different phases of construction.

[00:01:53] Before here I was working for a company out of Tampa, where I’m from. We did what they call a micro-tunnel and it’s relatively new to the industry, but it was almost a mile long, 78-inch diameter steel casing tunnel from the Port of Tampa over to Amalie Arena. Almost a mile long, the project was a huge success. It was 70 feet deep underneath the water.

[00:02:23] I enjoy working with the people, building a team, seeing everybody work together as a team. It’s tough, but we’re getting there. And the most satisfying for me is if we do a challenging concrete pour or a deck pour, something that you could look back at the end of the day, turn around and look, and just say to yourself it was a success and no one was hurt.

[00:02:48] On a large scale you could look back at what this project is going to do for the local people here. Is it an inconvenience to the farmer? Of course it is, but the result will be just overwhelming success and it is a good feeling knowing that I’m part of something, and I’m just happy to be here. I hope I’m here till the very end.