Call before you dig

[WinterDeere]

You also have to remember, much of what is in the ground goes back 75+ years. Old AC water, clay sewer, steel, lead air phone, ect, and often that is still in service. I haven't Personally seen any wooden water mains still in use, but coworkers Have shown me pictures of them from within the last 10 years. I Have vacuum excavated on an ancient tar and fabric-rope type material, phone line, running between Henry Flagers original rail bed, and US1. I dont "think" it was in service, but you still have to assume everything in the ground is still live.

I lived for several years in a tightly-packed Victorian village, all houses built 1870's - 1890's, that was plumbed, gassed, and electrified real early. You couldn't dig anywhere on that little 0.2 acre property without hitting something, and then spending half the day figuring out what it was and where it went. Since all of my digging was by hand, I never bothered with one-call, knowing full well all or most of what I found was far too old to even be on their plans.

I did end up running my downspouts into some very old drains, that left my property and went somewhere unknown. They never backed up, so must have led to a street sewer somewhere down the road. Either that, or some poor neighbor was left wondering why their basement suddenly started filling with water every time it rained.

 

[paulsharvey]

Heck, not utility, but buried, last year, they found a small ship/big boat under a signalized intersection in down town St Augustine

 

[Jstpssng]

Heck, not utility, but buried, last year, they found a small ship/big boat under a signalized intersection in down town St Augustine

You win!

 

[bcp]

All better than the European thing of running into bombs underground.

Bruce

 

[kenmbz]

When we were in Cambodia, lots of warning signs for mines.
Not a place to wander off the trails or without a guide!

 

[paulsharvey]

Also, although it's required by law to still call in a locate on private property, from my experience, the locators have so many tickets, they generally just clear them, as No Conflict when they see a homeowner submitted ticket. Had that happen to me like 3 times, even though I know dang well the buried phone is Right there where I was setting fence posts

 

[WinterDeere]

Also, although it's required by law to still call in a locate on private property, from my experience, the locators have so many tickets, they generally just clear them, as No Conflict when they see a homeowner submitted ticket. Had that happen to me like 3 times, even though I know dang well the buried phone is Right there where I was setting fence posts

This probably varies by locale. I've always had them show up and mark here, and in fact they always ask the date by which I need it marked, and have asked me to push a project back a few days in cases where they were booked up.

I do think their regular contractors have more pull, when it comes to getting a rush job prioritized at the top of their list, but they always seem to make it out on schedule when we call.

 

[paulsharvey]

One day I do need to check the "Sunshine 811 Damage Prevention Guide Book" on if normal agricultural activities are exempt? At the same time, we have all seen the video of the guy using a post driver, going through a medium sized gas main....

9.9K views · 54 reactions | Pile-driving a fence post into a gas main - with catastrophic results. This excavator was VERY VERY lucky! | Pile-driving a fence post into a gas main - with catastrophic results. This excavator was VERY VERY lucky! Think

Pile-driving a fence post into a gas main - with catastrophic results. This excavator was VERY VERY lucky! Think you know where the buried utilities are...

www.facebook.com

I have also seen pictures of the aftermath of some drain tile, in an ag field, when the big trench went through a gas transmission line.

Moms property used to have a gas easement. We knew about it, and knew we couldn't get gas, too big of a line, but didn't know how big. Until Florida Gas Transmission did a rehab job on it; and 26" and 22" line, operating around 800-1200 psi.... She sold the easement portion off with 28 acres when she broke the propertyView attachment 3114761

 

[RaydaKub]

That is just INNERDUCT.... Actual fiber cable is much smaller and pulled in when all the innerduct is connected to appropriate building/fixtures....

We have fiber to our house and I broke it one day. Cost me $60 and the guy fixed it in about an hour. The fiber was less than 1/2 millimeter across and maybe 1 millimeter with the shield for each fiber. He used a special tool to line up the 2 ends to within a 30,000 of an inch, then melted it together. My cable actually has 4 conductors to it, but he only fixed 1; every house here has 4 and they only use one, so no matter. With insulation and steel wire reinforcement, my cable was about 1/2 wide and 3/8 thick. But every house had its own fiber strung in. There is some kind of divider box to split them all out as they enter a neighborhood; these are not repeaters, just a way to separate the fibers apart without bending something too far. I know that just coming down my street, it was a 64-home cable. I think it was a 256-home cable that went all the way downtown to their offices and that's the first data switching that takes place. They wouldn't have all the insulation and reinforcement for each house in that cable, but it could still get to be maybe 2 inches thick. By now, there are probably several of these cables in place.

 

[Fixastuff]

I cut a 1” gas line last week. Locate was 5ft off. When you put in hundred of thousand + of feet per year you find many unlocated utilities.