Utility Marking - Help me read

[rich_ncal]

I am planning on digging a trench for a culvert. I called the utility location service.

One of the utilities marked the water lines in blue in the dirt parallel to the road. The marking in the attached picture is on the road.

How do I read this marking? Is this a 6 inch concrete water line, anywhere in the area 2 feet to 6 feet from the arrow?

 

[tlbuser]

Yep, looks like an offset mark. 2-6 feet is a pretty big range though. 6" AcP can either be asbestos concrete pipe or a utility company abbreviation, hopefully the second. Best to call the utility locating service and ask them for sure.

From the rule book we use

In areas where marks may be destroyed (high traffic areas, gravel areas, dirt
areas, etc.), or where surface conditions are such that the placement of
marks directly over the utility line is not possible, offset markings shall be
used. The offset marks should be placed on a permanent surface, which is
not likely to be destroyed. When possible, offset marks shall be used in
conjunction with marks placed in accordance with (1) above. Offset marks
shall include an arrow, pointing in the direction of the utility line, with the
distance in feet (measured with an appropriate instrument) to the location of
the utility line shown on the right side of the arrow, and size, material type
and other information on the left side of the arrow.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Keep in mind the one call laws were written by the utility companies for the utility companies.

Their location service is responsible for making you aware of buried utilities. It's your responsibility to locate them via excavation and to avoid damaging them.

If you damage a buried utility the repair is on your nickel. End of story.

In our area we have fiber optic to the premise (home). Before that if we cut a buried drop we carried repair kits and kept right on trucking. The fiber service drops cost between twenty five hundred and five thousand dollars to replace.

It's a brave new world out there. In a letter to a telco one time explaining why we needed to directional bore instead of open trench an installation I used the term "subterranean congestion". That was ten years ago. I had no idea.

 

[Highbeam]

In my area that would be 6" asbestos cement water main. Do not fret about asbestos cement. It is not the same as fibrous asbestos that you can inhale UNLESS you cut the AC pipe with a chopsaw and create fibers. We have bagillions of feet of AC water main in use. New mains are ductile iron.

It looks like the 2-6' is referring to depth and not an offset. Also note that the utility locates are plus or minus 3 feet and as you know AC pipes are nonmetallic so they can't be detected with locating equipment. This means that the locator guessed where that main is located and the guess can be way off (plus or minus 3 feet).

We often find AC mains are not accurately located. Dig carefully and slowly. The AC main is light gray in color and soft enough to dig your finger nail into. I have seen it cut with an axe.

Also, in a case like this I would recommend that you walk up and down the main to find the first water main valve on the line in each direction. This is to shut the main off if it blows. You can just find the round valve box and be sure it is clear and obvious so that the water company can shut them off in a hurry.

 

[Nat]

Here, if the line is locatad by the companies rep, they all sub the locating out to private companies, if you dig to with-in 3' it must be dug by hand. If you hit the line outside of 3' from thier mark it's their nickel. I always called to have the utilities located before I would dig a swimming pool, and 9 times out of 10 the lines were nowhere near where they were marked. On one job we had them located and the marks showed the main elect. coming around the north side of the home and going into the meter base on the back. The pool was going on the south side and the first 30 minutes I had cut the main cable to the meter base, the phone line and the cable TV line. When Duke Power came out to repair it for the homeowner they could see the marks where the locater had marke plumb on the other side of the house, just shuck their heads.
On another job we hit the main power, the cable, the phone and a gas line over 40' from their marks. It kind of scares me sometimes, but what can you do? later, Nat

 

[EddieWalker]

Nat brings up a good point. Be sure to not disturb the mark when you dig. If you cut or damage anything outside the markings, it's there fault. If you damage it where they told you it is, it's your fault.

Dig a few test holes with a shovel and then start probing. You do have a probe, right? hahahaha

I have a thin metal rod that's probably a quarter of an inch thick and three feet long with a wooden handle. I found it, so I don't know what it's supposed to be used for, maybe for roasting weenies. It's great for sticking into the ground when your looking for things. Just keep poking until you hit somehting. If it's all clear, dig out a little more and probe some more.

If you ever watch the water utilty guys working, you've probably seen one on the backhoe and two or more in the hole. Those guys in the hole are probing and shoveling by hand. When they know it's clear for another foot or so, they direct the backhoe operator to clear some more dirt. He's not digging, he's just clearing it for the guys in the hole who are doing the real work.

Eddie

 

[LBrown59]

Hit the water line 4 different places drilling post for a ramp at a church this week.
It wasn't marked .
Luck was with us as it wasn't damaged.

 

[LBrown59]

You can't depend on the call before you dig deal.
Not all utilities subscribe to the service so you can still hit a utility line as it would not be marked by the locating service.
Whose nickel is that on if you hit one of those lines???

 

[SPIKER]

I just friday had the phone company out torepair phone lines, (actually 2 lines and both were tore up so bad he couldn't get a good read from either one. so had to replace the one which is still tempeoraly run in ornage line above ground to my farm house.)

I had the call b4 dig guys out and they never even got one tool out of there truck. I had marked where I was wanting underground water/elec service to my pole barn. they said nope nothing is back there, I also cut a septic line which I repaired myself. this was a long while back and I didn't bother hooking up the phone back then just sold my old home and getting services hooked up at the farm now...

MarkM

 

[flusher]

I am planning on digging a trench for a culvert. I called the utility location service.

One of the utilities marked the water lines in blue in the dirt parallel to the road. The marking in the attached picture is on the road.

How do I read this marking? Is this a 6 inch concrete water line, anywhere in the area 2 feet to 6 feet from the arrow?

When I was ready to have my electric service pole installed on my new 10-acre spread, I needed to be sure that there were no utilities buried near the fence line where the pole would be installed.

I got a can of white spray paint and marked the area about 20 feet each way along the fenceline and roadway centered on the spot where the hole would be augured. I sprayed "USA" (Underground Service Alert) at the ends of the lines and then called USA's 800 number.

The phone company gal located their buried lines and marked them in red (they were buried under the road ditch). The cable guy stopped by to double check my location even though there's no cable service out my way. Ditto for gas and water (wells and septic systems only out here).

I figured that I had exercised due diligence in this matter and if by remote chance we augered into some buried utility my rear end would be covered.