Ok. I am deferring to the power of group think here. Here is my situation. I need to trench 300' for electrical and telecommunication conduit. Electrical is 3" wide conduit and telecommunication will be 2" conduit. The minimum depth for electrical is 30". I am trenching from a pole that is pretty much in the drainage ditch next to the road and up a hill. I am guessing I'll start somewhere around 36" at the pole and be around 3-5' deep when I start ascending the hill. Over a certain number of feet I'll eventually get back up to the 30" (36" to be safe). I think I got that all worked out. Here is my issue. The electrical service is asking for a bed of sand(or stone dust) below the conduit and 12" above. I can't get any answer out of the fiber internet company so I was going to do the same for their conduit. No problem but here is the issue. The telecommunication conduit needs to be 12" away from the electrical. If I dig a wide trench to accommodate both conduits and the spacing, I am looking at a minimum 17" wide trench. Realistically it'll probably be closer to 20". Ok. So what is the problem? The problem is the 12" of sand on top of the conduit. How do I get 12" on top of both conduit and not have to buy a ton of extra fill for the 12" gap in between? I had considered renting a trencher but that might be a little treacherous on the slope and I would need to put a much large gap in the rock wall to navigate through. Plus, being in New England, I'll likely hit some large rocks. Then what? It's not like you can just bend 3" around them or dig multiple new trenches hoping to find a clear path. There is also the fact the electric company only allow a certain amount of bend in the run and I already need to do a 45 degree turn at one point.
A trencher, that can go that deep, is about $310/day from Home Depot. I'd have to do some serious looking to find one somewhat local for cheaper. The easy route is just do the wide trench with the CAT 306 but the cost of filling that 12x12x300 area, in between conduits, is prohibitive.
