We continue the “Keyhole” section. In it, an MS correspondent spends one day with a builder, “spying” on his work. This time the hero of the column was the foreman of the SMU-8 tunnelers Sergei Terekhov. He told us what treasures the builders are digging up, how to communicate with the team, and why his team manages to exceed the plan.
At half past seven in the morning, the first builder appears at the site where the inclined passage for the future Sheremetyevskaya station is being built. This is the foreman of the SMU-8 tunnellers, Sergei Terekhov. He arrives early to check on the night shift.
“This needs to be done to adjust the work for the day,” explains Terekhov.
His workplace is far from a warm office with flowers on the windowsill. Terekhov works at the control panel of a tubing layer - a machine that installs the tunnel lining.
The entire shift takes place at the mine face. Water flows from above, fenders rattle all around, and the overalls instantly become covered with clay and machine oil. Right now, the miners are installing a new inclined ring.
“At first it was difficult to cope with the team,” Sergei confesses. – I was looking for an approach to each miner: I praised one so that they could work better, and scolded the other. A person must be able to be motivated to do something. If you don’t know psychology well, you won’t be a good leader.
But giving orders is not enough, you also need to help your team.
- Someone’s hammer is broken - you go to repair it or bring a new one. We take care of each other,” adds Sergei. – My guys are good!
A young miner, Denis, is working next to Sergei. He hammers wooden blocks - trim - into the space between the tubing and the rock. When the crew installs another tunnel ring, the gap will be filled with concrete. The trim will prevent it from coming out from under the lining.
“Almost all our work is manual, because we work in frozen soil,” explains Sergei. – If we start drilling and blasting, we disturb the rock – water will flow.
The work is difficult, but the team exceeds the plan every month, says Sergei. The fewer miners in the face, the faster the ring is installed.
“We should have 18 people on staff, but in fact we have 13,” explains the foreman. – When there are fewer of you in the team, work immediately appears, there is no time to look at others.
The team is interested in exceeding the plan - the salary depends on the result for the month.
The most interesting thing about the work of a miner, says Sergei, is digging up antiquities. When the team removed the first layer of rock, underneath it was an ancient well with a two-meter forged cross.
“There used to be a settlement in this place,” the foreman shrugs. – Sometimes we came across fragments of household items.
The study of history will not end there for the miners: soon they will reach the layers of the Jurassic period.
“Then we will dig up half-meter nautiluses,” says Sergei. – When you first take them out, they shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow. And then they burn out in oxygen and quickly disintegrate. You need to have time to admire it!