[AT] Re:Underground Wire

[HaliganBar at aol.com]

How many times have list members see the Dig Safe markings be several feet 
off of where the actual utilities are actually located! A couple years ago they 
ran all new underground cable lines in the town where I work. We averaged 4 
calls a week for utilites struck by the contractor. At least 98% were due to 
mismarked or unmarked utilities.

The ultimate call was when the cable contractor "found" an unmarked 
electrical conduit. They called the power company out and after 30 minutes of 
discussion determined that it was "abandoned" and said the cable contractor could use a 
chainsaw to remove the piece in his way. We were told the flash was 
spectacular when the saw cut through the still-live wires in the conduit. The guy 
running the saw was transported to the hospital  for flash burns but, was fine.

After 2 weeks on the job, the contractor abandoned using equipment to dig and 
just hired a bunch of laborers with shovels.  The job took a little longer 
but any utilities they "found" didn't get disturbed.

So, I guess that any method to help identify the location of underground 
utilities is probably money well spent.

Regards,
Karl

In a message dated 8/13/04 12:59:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
andyglines at hotmail.com writes:

<< Putting gravel or sand over utilities can be a good idea for future 
 excavations.  I used to be a backhoe operator and anytime I came up with 
 something like gravel, sand, different colored dirt I would stop to see 
 where it came from.  This often indicated that I was about to dig into one 
 of those utilities which were so "carefully marked". >>