Concrete over trenched power water lines?

[jinjimbob]

The house we moved into has water (From the well house), propane, power, phone all together, there is a short distance where the previous owners put a concrete base for a kennel over these lines . . . not good.

Also, by looking at your diagram, your well is right up against the house? In my county, we are not allowed to have anything within 50 ft of the well head, makes sense really, no permanent none porous driveway either.

 

[flusher]

If city codes allow I plan on running my power and water lines in same 18" wide (width of B/H bucket) ~2.5-3' deep. Its common practice here at the plant to cover power lines with red dyed concrete to identify and protect the lines.

A quick check with a concrete calculator shows me using about 7 yards to obtain 5" layer of concrete for 300' of trench. Cutting a few concrete come alongs down to 16" width and a truck driver willing to work with you it does not seem like a difficult task.

View attachment 105696

Other than the hassle of dealing with the concrete if you ever had to dig the lines up is this a good idea???

Here is my plan:
View attachment 105697

Thanks for any feedback. Chuck.

I don't think the building codes that apply to residences require concrete over power line trenches. My 240V/200A service runs in a 330 ft trench from the service pole to my outdoor service panel. The conduit is buried 30" deep. No problem with ground freezing here in the North Sacramento Valley. I suspect it's the same on the Texas coast. If water lines and power conduit are run in the same trench, there is a minimum horizontal separation requirement (12" IRRC). Don't recall any vertical separation requirement. My power and water lines run in separate trenches. I buried a #6 insulated copper wire in the water trench along side the water line and left the ends stick out of the ground so the PVC water line can be located with one of those electric oscillator-type detectors.