Dug Up Phone Line.... What next?

[riptides]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I knew about the phone line's electricity.)</font>

Amazingly, people just brush off the phone line. Hey. it's just a phone line. Well.............. it has electricity. 'nuf said.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I've educated a few neighboors in my time splicing lines. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Inspector507]

GerardC,
Some states are different........keep that in mind. Here in Ohio, they deregulated the electrical supply industry. One of the perks that comes with that is, as a homeowner you can own and install the underground feed TO your meter if you want the hassles. What typically is done on residential existing homes or homes out in the sticks, the homeowner digs the trench to the house, Utility owns and installs wire.

 

[MMILLER]

Here in PA. you must call PA one call before digging. Had a excavater give estimate on reworking lower end of drive way at township road. He called PA one call. They then sent out guy from phone company to locate burried line. Set up meeting time then phone man could not find area for meeting called my contractor to go find him and lead him to site. On arrive he gets out of vehicle walks around 15 min. Could not find line tells contractor he would not dig. Contractor tells him I want job done and he will dig. Phone man then has my Contractor lead him back to main road so he can find his way back. We did work no problems but if all of these guys are this incompentent then it is no wonder people hit lines. I question wether this guy has trouble finding his $#@ when he needs to wipe.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Here in Ohio, they deregulated the electrical supply industry. One of the perks that comes with that is, as a homeowner you can own and install the underground feed TO your meter if you want the hassles. )</font>

Like most of the other guys have said, I'm accustomed to the electric company owning, maintaining, etc. everything TO the meter, or at least to the pole the meter is on. Our rural electric company would provide a meter base and then required the customer to provide the pole, weather head, conduit, and wiring from a height of 12' down to the meter base (approximately 6').

I would have been surprised that other places were different if I had not done a gas leakage survey in Ohio a few years ago, because I was also accustomed to the gas company owning everything TO the meter. However, on the job I did in Ohio, there were shut off valves just a few feet off the gas mains, then the lines going across the customers' properties to the meters next to the houses were the customers' responsibility.

So, obviously, you have to be familiar with local laws, customs, utility company policies, etc.

 

[WCarlson]

gerard,
I am not surprised and with all due respect to those that feel that the power company owns everything up to the meter, my experience is quite different. I am also a NIMO rural customer. When I purchased my 40 year old house, nine years ago. I had overhead wires providing all electrical, cable and phone service. The cable runs ran within easy touching distance of second story deck that had been added about 10 years earlier. In that they were within reach of energetic grandchildren, I hired an electrician to bury the cables from the NIMO pole to the meter. He trenched a relatively circuitous route in order to avoid a couple large trees and the septic system. NIMO's involvment was limited to disconnectng the overhead wires, connecting the buried wires and certifing the system was connected properly. The buried wires are mine as were the overhead wires. When overhead wires between the NIMO pole and your house are taken down by a falling tree limb, guess who arranges to have an electician reinstall the overhead wires? It isn't NIMO.
Bill

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( you must call PA one call before digging )</font>

Does every state now have a system where one call is supposed to get all the utilities marked? I guess they do. Whether one call, or whether you call each utility individually, there are lots of mistakes made, and I guess that's understandable. Nearly 25 years ago, I had an inground swimming pool installed in the backyard. The house was nearly new, and I had been there several times when it was under construction so I knew where the gas line was and knew it would have to be moved. However, I did not know where the phone line and electric line were. I called the phone company and they came out and marked the line coming across the alley at 90 degrees into my yard right where the pool would be, then abruptly angling about 45 degrees to the house. So they laid a temporary line so service wouldn't be disrupted during the construction. When the backhoe eventually dug up the old line, that cut service to my next door neighbor because his line was running along with mine in my yard to the point of that 45 degree angle, then his angled off toward his house. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I tied the wires back together to restore his service until the phone company came and fixed it.

Then I had to call the electric company and they told me to call the developer/builder who told me to call the subcontractor; a big company that did all the electrical, plumbing, and HVAC for them. They sent a kid out who assured me that the electric line was not where we would be digging. He said it ran under, then alongside the paved driveway; a routing that made no sense whatsoever. So I called and got his supervisor and told him I didn't think the kid knew how to use his equipment. The supervisor assured me the kid was right. But the first bucketful of dirt pulled up by the backhoe also pulled up the electric line, sparks flew, and the backhoe operator jumped from the machine, fortunately uninjured. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

So the one call deal is great, but either way, I wouldn't entirely trust the results.

 

[BillyP]

Gerald, Here in SE Oklahoma there are two power companies, AEP and Choctaw Electric. Neither company will run or maintain an underground line. The homeowner can run the underground line and they'll feed it but it's the homeowner's baby.

Could be different where you live but from the fax it doesn't seem to be.

 

[Junkman]

Three years ago, I installed underground power to my home and I had to install the meter socket, and the conduit from the meter socket on the house, to the pole base. The electric company supplied and installed the wire from the pole transformer to the meter socket. There was no charge for the install or for materials. They even supplied the piece of conduit going up the pole. I did supply them with a weather head for the pipe that is installed on the pole because they usually just pack it with clay and I have learned from others experience that the clay will deteriorate and let water into the conduit. I did the same for the telephone and the cable. The electric company and the town had to sign off on the conduit install before the wire was pulled, however the town accepted the electric company inspection and waived their inspection. Since I put it in, I know where it is, and I also know that it is 4' down. I keep a note book that has all these details in it for the next owner of the house, so there should be no question where things are located on the property when I am gone.

 

[Poppa]

Well, there you go Gerard, my free advice appears to have been worth exactly what you paid for it /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif. I guess the question now is did you have the line put in from post to meter or was it there when you got there? Either way, you can still get it located, it's just that you will be the one who pays for it and not the elec utility. Alternatively, Junkman gave you excellent instructions for determining the run from the pole and the meter.

Mike

 

[Soundguy]

I used to do some tv and tele contract work... Loved it when ringer voltage came in at an inopertune moment..

Soundguy