Shortcuts and pressure rarely mix well on safety-critical projects.

So, what would you do if your project manager insisted on pushing forward with defective materials just to meet a deadline? Would you throw a fit in hopes that they won’t use the materials? Or would you do your job, leave a paper trail, and prepare for the fallout?

In the following story, one junior engineer deals with this exact scenario. Here’s what happened.

Project manager said ‘If it’s a problem, the pressure test will catch it’. Alright then, let’s find out.

Back when I was a junior engineer, I was working with a piping contractor supporting a gas plant project that was in the final stretch before commissioning. We were under intense pressure to hit deadlines, and everyone was feeling the heat.

One of my responsibilities was reviewing materials before installation, i.e. basic quality control to make sure we weren’t about to install something that would bite us later.

Then the pipes arrived.

These were large-diameter, high-pressure pipes for a critical gas line.

But the moment I saw them, I knew something was off.

The mill markings didn’t match the material certificates, and some of the weld seams looked rough. When we took a closer look, we found surface defects and laminations at the bevel, classic signs of poor-quality steel from a dodgy mill.

All of the engineers agreed that the pipes were not good.

I flagged it immediately.

My lead engineer took one look and agreed – these pipes weren’t fit for purpose.

We raised it with the project manager, expecting him to do the obvious thing, that is, to reject the batch and order replacements from an approved supplier.

But this PM wasn’t like most project managers. He wasn’t an engineer. He had a Bachelor of Commerce and had landed the job thanks to his uncle, a senior executive. He had zero technical knowledge and didn’t care to learn.

To him, it was just another job to push through quickly to up his bonus, and rejecting the pipes would cause delays, something he was desperate to avoid since it would probably affect his bonus.

His response?

The project manager, on the other hand, disagreed.

“The supplier says they meet spec, so they meet spec. Just install them and move on.”

I pushed back, explaining that if these pipes failed under pressure, we were looking at a major incident.

He waved me off.

“Just get it done. If it’s a problem, the pressure test will catch it.”

Alright, mate. Let’s see how that goes.

They did not pass the pressure test.

The pipes were installed as-is, and we moved on to pressure testing.

I stood back and watched.

As we ramped up the pressure, the pipe’s weld seam split wide open and ruptured the pipe. The force of the failure sent a shockwave through the system, and a few pipe supports even bent.

The pressure test failed. Spectacularly.

The project manager tried to find a way out of taking responsibility.

Now, instead of a minor delay to replace the pipes before installation, we had a catastrophic failure that shut down work for weeks.

The entire line had to be cut out, re-welded, and re-tested.

The supplier was blacklisted, and an internal investigation was launched into how the pipes had been approved in the first place. We were also asked by the client to bear the cost of rework.

As expected, the PM tried to shift the blame. But my lead engineer simply pulled up the email chain where we had clearly raised the defect concerns.

Management didn’t take long to connect the dots.

The PM was taken off the project immediately and was sacked a month later following initial investigation results and even his uncle couldn’t save him.

Never saw him again after that and last I heard he decided to pursue a career outside of the industry.

Wow! That manager sounds terrible!

Let’s see what the fine folks over at Reddit have to say about this.

This person is spot on.

It sounds like the engineers know what they’re doing.

As this person points out, the PM is to blame.

Here’s someone who understands.

Talk about sabotaging yourself!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.