drssg
Veteran Member
I agree. It's one thing to cut YOUR line, but this sounds like the line at the road. It's hard to tell how many homes would be out of service if the line was cut.
Telecom wires under future driveway.
- Thread starter homedad
- Start date
Rustyiron
Super Member
^^^ well worth an hour of hand shoveling. There should be a warning tape, yellow or red 6" or more above each utility. You can carefully scratch down the this warning tape with a backhoe and hand shovel to the line to establish its exact location and depth.
I very rarely find tape(almost never) and I put in more locates than average. On average I call in a mile of tickets every week or two. Only one city had tape famd for sewer only.
The township won't issue an address until I pull a building permit. I think I'll drive the 3 hours tomorrow and hand dig down until I find the cable so I know what I'm dealing with. It was Frontier/ Verizon. Frontier said they have no Idea how to get it moved so they sent me to Verizon. Verizon said it's Frontier's responsibility. It's very sandy soil close to Lake Michigan so it shouldn't be too bad.
LittleBittyBigJohn
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I am a lazy person that did not put in tape... I ran the conduit for my underground utilities on my property. I bought the tape and had it handy. It ended up being such a pain in the butt on 450' of trench that i just said heck with it and covered it up without the tape... It's hard to get 6" of cover 4' down with a 1 yd bucket...
Slowpoke Slim
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"... and some folks just have to pee on the electric fence for themselves..."
It's going to have to be dug up, cut, spliced and rerouted through a new trench.
How much spare money do you have?
It's going to have to be dug up, cut, spliced and rerouted through a new trench.
How much spare money do you have?
grsthegreat
Super Star Member
I always placed tape in my trenches, but except for plastic gas lines, a tracer is not required where i worked. I own my own cable tracer equipment, and i can locate any pipe with metallic wires where i can throw a signal. I can locate gas pipes that have an intact tracer wire. I can get depth pretty close to actual also. Your not supposed to operate power equipment within 3 feet of a location mark in my area, as thats how far off their guys might be when they locate. Really sad.
a buddy of mine has hit his fair share of mismarked underground wires. He installs septic systems. As long as hes more than 3 feet from location mark, the repairs are not his responsibility.
a buddy of mine has hit his fair share of mismarked underground wires. He installs septic systems. As long as hes more than 3 feet from location mark, the repairs are not his responsibility.
ponytug
Super Member
I use a pressure washer to make cuts in the soil when in the neighborhood of where I suspect there are pipes or wires. My soil is too variable to reliably "feel" things. I'm sure that others are more talented.
To the OP, @homedad, I would talk to Frontier and Verizon some more, as if they have to touch the wires and resplice, it often is not cheap, and even pricier if it is an emergency.
For the liability coverage alone, I would be really, really tempted to hire a contractor to do the work for me as they may have access to better maps or know the local history better with the underground cables in the area, and if not they have insurance that's going to be better than mine for this. Some times, it is money well spent to let someone else do the work.
In my book, since this could get expensive, potentially all on your nickel, I would be super nice, make appointments, go see folks in charge with photos and GPS coordinates and find out the costs before touching the soil. Ideally, you can convince them that you will be a long term, valued customer, but that's not always possible. I've lived places with huge copper and monster fiber cables that weren't local. Breaking one of them is pricey. (I watched the power company score a direct hit on a 10,000 pair underground copper telco cable once. Yes, "mega" pricey. 24x7 work by two telco techs in a 6x8x8 excavation and who knows how many techs running around town injecting signals. It took a week plus to do, IIRC)
I would also point out the possibility that the cable might be neither Frontier nor Verizon. Just because it is labeled "telco" for 811, doesn't mean it has to be them. I know that there are big fiberoptic cables in our road that don't belong to any of the local Telcos, and, interestingly enough, not on their burial maps (which I have seen). The older linesmen know that the cables are there only because they have seen the fiber access points, but that wouldn't necessarily be true of an outsider or new tech...crazy.
Good luck!
All the best,
Peter
To the OP, @homedad, I would talk to Frontier and Verizon some more, as if they have to touch the wires and resplice, it often is not cheap, and even pricier if it is an emergency.
For the liability coverage alone, I would be really, really tempted to hire a contractor to do the work for me as they may have access to better maps or know the local history better with the underground cables in the area, and if not they have insurance that's going to be better than mine for this. Some times, it is money well spent to let someone else do the work.
In my book, since this could get expensive, potentially all on your nickel, I would be super nice, make appointments, go see folks in charge with photos and GPS coordinates and find out the costs before touching the soil. Ideally, you can convince them that you will be a long term, valued customer, but that's not always possible. I've lived places with huge copper and monster fiber cables that weren't local. Breaking one of them is pricey. (I watched the power company score a direct hit on a 10,000 pair underground copper telco cable once. Yes, "mega" pricey. 24x7 work by two telco techs in a 6x8x8 excavation and who knows how many techs running around town injecting signals. It took a week plus to do, IIRC)
I would also point out the possibility that the cable might be neither Frontier nor Verizon. Just because it is labeled "telco" for 811, doesn't mean it has to be them. I know that there are big fiberoptic cables in our road that don't belong to any of the local Telcos, and, interestingly enough, not on their burial maps (which I have seen). The older linesmen know that the cables are there only because they have seen the fiber access points, but that wouldn't necessarily be true of an outsider or new tech...crazy.
Good luck!
All the best,
Peter
Topzide
Gold Member
My concern to this whole project is, are the wire in the right of way next to county/state road, or do they run across your property? If on your property, is there a right of way for them, or did they just do what was the easiest for them? If there is no right of way and on your property, you could make them move at their cost as they weren't put where they were supposed to be put.