Call before you dig

[caver]

Cable test point in a remote area of NE Colorado. I would have not noticed it but was reading a trip report to the Pawnee Buttes area and they presumed it was for area nuke silos. So I kept an eye out for one. Maybe someone in in here knows exactly what it is. It looked like schrader valves.

 

[paulsharvey]

Cable test point in a remote area of NE Colorado. I would have not noticed it but was reading a trip report to the Pawnee Buttes area and they presumed it was for area nuke silos. So I kept an eye out for one. Maybe someone in in here knows exactly what it is. It looked like schrader valves.
View attachment 3129830

Leaded air cables have Schrader valves, but that doesn't look like the lead air cables I've seen. Ones I've seen, is in a pedestal, and it's a soldered lead "hose" with a Schrader valve.

But, much of our infrastructure predates me, and frankly often any living person. Not uncommon to work on nearly 100 year old stuff, from bridges from late 30s to water lines from the teens. People miss something with FLa, they know St Augustine and Pensacola are Old, like 450 years old, but they think the rest is 1980s or newer. Gainesville, Palatka, Ocala, Starke, Lake City, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, ect are pre-war.

 

[paulsharvey]

That could be a specialized splice, that is pressurized to keep ground water out? Now they are grease-wax filled, but i wouldn't put it past old copper splices to use air, or other inert gas to keep them dry?

 

[caver]

I wasn't about to take the caps off to look. I do recall the rough area and there is a cable line marked on topo maps. Some seem to go nowhere or they end next to a silo/launch complex. This whole area is active Minuteman III silos 321 Missile Squadron, Warren AFB.

 

[paulsharvey]

Anyone who does excavation really should atleast read their state regs on it. For us in FLa, it isn't as cut and dry as, if they don't mark it, and you hit it, your free. First, you have 24" tolerance zone from the outside if the mark. So, they mark a 36" wide duct bank, you are responsible for a 84" zone. On top of that, you are responsible for checking your "positive response" on the ticket. They might have not marked but their response might be, "must be white lined" or something other than "clear". And even if marked "clear" IF there are clear signs there is something there, say a hand hole, pedestal, manhole, power transformer, farm tap, reg station, ect, You are responsible for calling them to "refresh".

All that seems like a lot, but it doesn't even need to be high profile to run into the $10k plus quickly. The locators while still try to throw it on you 9 times out of 10.

If you do damage, you likely will get a bill. Then you deny, deny, deny; and at some point, it goes to arbitration, where it gets settled.

I've been part of a couple damages that are around that $150-250k range, both involving water mains, that caused road damage. I have been distantly involved in a $1.4m damage, not directly.

 

[paulsharvey]

So, I'll admit, I'm going back through scanning the comments from the top, and I came across one talking about conduit/utility color.

Locate mark colors Are regulated (here), orange=telecom; blue=water; green=sewer; yellow=gas/fuel; red=power; purple=reclaimed/raw water, ect. However; conduit color is Not regulated. There is absolutely fiber/telecoms in yellow/orange/green/black/grey conduit. Most times green pipe is sewage and blue is water, But I have absolutely seen blue foremain. Gas, yellow PE is common for small stuff, but direct bury steel is now green epoxy coat steal, and drilled is generally a brown epoxy coating; But old steel was often/is often a black "bark" of asphalt and asbestos wrap. Some of the old gas stuff was a pinkish orange, and there was a type that was a gray-orange. Most ATT was for years 2 or 4" grey PE, but they have started using more and more 3" black PE conduit.

We were looking at a DBC copper (direct buried cable) in conflict with a signal pole. It was supposed to be a 1200 pair. Anyways, while 4 or 5 of us were trying to come up with a plan, a laborer came up with a Sawzall. We asked him what he was doing. "Foreman sent me to window the pipe". We told him, that's Copper, not pipe. He laughed and said that's pipe, there isn't 4" diameter cable.... We did stop him, but yes, it was a 4" OD cable, turned out it was a 2000 pr.

We currently have a rural fiber to house, stimulus job, that they are using 2" green PE for fiber. Not a "problem" , but everyone's first assumption on finding a 2" green poly is a sewer service

 

[Fixastuff]

So, I'll admit, I'm going back through scanning the comments from the top, and I came across one talking about conduit/utility color.

Locate mark colors Are regulated (here), orange=telecom; blue=water; green=sewer; yellow=gas/fuel; red=power; purple=reclaimed/raw water, ect. However; conduit color is Not regulated. There is absolutely fiber/telecoms in yellow/orange/green/black/grey conduit. Most times green pipe is sewage and blue is water, But I have absolutely seen blue foremain. Gas, yellow PE is common for small stuff, but direct bury steel is now green epoxy coat steal, and drilled is generally a brown epoxy coating; But old steel was often/is often a black "bark" of asphalt and asbestos wrap. Some of the old gas stuff was a pinkish orange, and there was a type that was a gray-orange. Most ATT was for years 2 or 4" grey PE, but they have started using more and more 3" black PE conduit.

We were looking at a DBC copper (direct buried cable) in conflict with a signal pole. It was supposed to be a 1200 pair. Anyways, while 4 or 5 of us were trying to come up with a plan, a laborer came up with a Sawzall. We asked him what he was doing. "Foreman sent me to window the pipe". We told him, that's Copper, not pipe. He laughed and said that's pipe, there isn't 4" diameter cable.... We did stop him, but yes, it was a 4" OD cable, turned out it was a 2000 pr.

We currently have a rural fiber to house, stimulus job, that they are using 2" green PE for fiber. Not a "problem" , but everyone's first assumption on finding a 2" green poly is a sewer service

I think so much is orange pipe is going in the ground people are using whatever color is available. lol. Had a couple holds on projects waiting on conduit off and on.

 

[paulsharvey]

I called 811. Guy shows up and flags all the utilities including a major gas pipeline crossing my property. He said I'm not supposed to tell you this, but that's a 12 inch main line, installed in 1978 (so over 45 years old) that is down about 6 feet "according to my meter". Rules were I could not dig within 25' either side of the pipeline without a representative from the gas company present.

Followed up with the gas company and they agreed to be there Tuesday by 12p to watch. So I rented a very capable Dingo to trench in the 1000' conduit run for the cable service. I had already trenched the 950' balance before he got there, so was familiar and very comfortable with the whole trenching operation at that point.

Amazing how much higher the pucker factor was trenching the last 50' running over the pipeline...though only digging down 2 feet, and in spite of it being brrr suit weather, I was sweating bullet sized drops the whole time while digging over that pipeline!View attachment 2993213View attachment 2993254

In FLa, that gas would be "high profile" and the utility can list it as that on their positive response, and require a rep to be onsite. That may or may not come mark them prior, and that's why it's important to check your positive response.

 

[paulsharvey]

It annoys me that they come out, mark and flag everything, but never come back and pick up the flags.

Neighbor kids liked it, I paid them a nickel a flag when the fiber optic project was done, over 100 various flags on my property.

Doug in SW IA

Some areas require "low impact marking", we did some on Florida State University campus, and we had to use chalk paint, and biodegradable marking flags. Everyone is supposed to use fading paint, but some of our local counties and city water/sewer departments use a perm oil based, so that it's easier to locate next time. Our bigger semi local gas outfit (TECO) also has glue down yellow medallions that put on the curb at road crossings

 

[paulsharvey]

They're installing fiber in front of my house now. They have damaged my asphalt drive during the process as well. THe drive cracked where they bored under it to run the lines and they put two gouges in the asphalt with their equipment. The only good thing is that I grew up with the guy who owns the large company doing all this work so hopefully getting it repaired won't be an issue.

That's caused by being too shallow, we refer to that as Mole Hilling. If they Horizontal Directional Drilled (HDD) it, I'm guessing they were maybe 18", but I'll bet they used a pneumatic missile,