What you need to know about miss Utility

[ultrarunner]

I thought I would do the right thing and called to mark the utilities on my property prior to installing fencing...

Surprised to learn the city sewer line for the neighborhood is not included and I would need to call the city... which I did.

They were of no help because the guy they sent out doesn't go near poison oak... he told me to dig all the post holes for the acre and cross fencing by hand and be careful... nothing in writing...

So much for my one experience...

On a separate and unrelated note...

A tree service truck wiped out the ATT U-verse tv/phone/Internet line... it always seemed low to me to begin with and the Internet was never as good as I thought it should be.

The tree guy called ATT to report a low line... they came right out and the repairman couldn't have been nicer... ran over 250' of new overhead and the Internet and TV has never been better... phone was always ok...

 

[sandman2234]

We had a friend working a nearby jobsite, and he brought the company's grader over to straighten out the dirt road going to my sister n law's. We had the utilities located, no problem, and he started digging the ditch with the grader, moving the dirt up onto the roadway. He caught a 1" diameter phone line, and was ready to call it quits. I called a couple of the neighbors houses, phone line was still good, so I wrapped the end around the grader blade and we pulled about 1/4 mile of cable out of the ground. (anybody need some scrap?). It was an old line, that had been replaced 20 years before. I knew that they had cut one when they installed the water main, and replaced the whole run so I wasn't worried, but the look of terror on the grader operator's face was priceless...
David from jax

 

[mjncad]

Surprised to learn the city sewer line for the neighborhood is not included and I would need to call the city... which I did.

They were of no help because the guy they sent out doesn't go near poison oak... he told me to dig all the post holes for the acre and cross fencing by hand and be careful... nothing in writing...

So much for my one experience...

Yep, just like water & sewer departments here.

We had a friend working a nearby jobsite, and he brought the company's grader over to straighten out the dirt road going to my sister n law's. We had the utilities located, no problem, and he started digging the ditch with the grader, moving the dirt up onto the roadway. He caught a 1" diameter phone line, and was ready to call it quits. I called a couple of the neighbors houses, phone line was still good, so I wrapped the end around the grader blade and we pulled about 1/4 mile of cable out of the ground. (anybody need some scrap?). It was an old line, that had been replaced 20 years before. I knew that they had cut one when they installed the water main, and replaced the whole run so I wasn't worried, but the look of terror on the grader operator's face was priceless...
David from jax

I was helping a friend clear out his ditch with my back blade when we encountered a heavy electrical line. We called the local power company and they came right out, took a look at it and said not to worry as it was an abandoned cable related to oil wells that used to be in the area. Yeah, we had that same "OH ****" look on our faces too.

 

[Sackett2]

While this don't involve the utilities dig program, it makes me chuckle.
Dads property is a hodgepodge of waterlines and phone lines going here and there as the old house was torn down and a new one built. Dad cut thru the phone line twice, one he patched himself and later the phone company put a new line in to bypass all the splices of 40 years.

So the water line to the second shop was spliced in on this bank, and Dad decided to put a retaining wall in. I cautioned him about the water line (He installed it) but sure enough he caught it with the bucket. He informed mom, shut the water off and ran to town for the stuff to stop the water. the repair would happen when the wall was done. As he continued the dig, he caught it again. I suggested at that point it would be a good place for a spigot and a shutoff valve. He agreed and set it up. As he dug some more he caught it again and put another spigot.
End result, two handy water spigots and a nice shut off valve behind the retaining wall.