VRAD's

[Goldenboy]

So how many people here in AT&T areas have went through the installation of VRAD's in their area. They hit my area real hard last year then I got a break for a while. Now they are calling in tons of crap VRADs again. These tickets average about 3000 feet long each. They are all in the worst areas because they have to run fiber from the XBox to a manhole.

For those of you who haven't got to enjoy the start of project lightspeed here's what you have to look forward to.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/predrunner/vrad.jpg

[TBONE]

I have only had two so far this year :yahoo:

[yahoo]

when att does their own work here we do not have to locate ....thank God.. but yes we are seeing this regular here...... att want's to spend the money here with all that federal hurricane money they got 2 years ago......how's those leads brother????

[beyond help]

I have done approx 1000 of these installation tickets so far in 3 yrs. WHAT A PAIN IN THE @$$.:verymad::censored: The only good thing is that you know how everything runs after the installation is done. First you get a ticket fot the pad installations, then the fiber, then the copper, and finally the electric. 4 tickets for each v-rad. BTW, the marks are wiped out each time. Also, they will call in as a restake each time (be there in 2 hrs). They believe that because we are AT&T subcontractors, we are their personal staking :censored:.

[underground quester]

This morning I saw an installation crew in my area working a new pit. I always stop to enquire what the heck they are doing.

Well, they were installing a new V-RAD, crossconnect, a manhole and 2 telephone peds in a 12 foot x 12 foot area. I will take a photo tomorrow and upload it to show all the ducting running between them. It was an absolute cluster____!!

[beyond help]

This morning I saw an installation crew in my area working a new pit. I always stop to enquire what the heck they are doing.

Well, they were installing a new V-RAD, crossconnect, a manhole and 2 telephone peds in a 12 foot x 12 foot area. I will take a photo tomorrow and upload it to show all the ducting running between them. It was an absolute cluster____!!

This is the future of locating boys and girls.:bonk:

[Goldenboy]

Here all the work is done under one ticket. The same company does all the prep work,pours the concrete, installs the copper and fiber, and runs an empty duct to a pole or ped so the electric company can just pull a secondary through.

[Mr Blunderbuss]

V-rads started showing up in my area just over a year ago. When I was locating ATT, they weren't too bad. After I left, some of the locates did get worse. Fortunately, they aren't in my area.

[Goldenboy]

They have finished all my easy crossboxes already. Now they moved on to the real long and real crappy ones. The one I'm working on now is well over 7000 feet and runs down one of the worst roads in my area. It's actually a good candidate for the most congested area thread.

[Mr Blunderbuss]

The worst part about the vrads was the contractor doing the work. Back in January they called in several tickets for different locations; the worst of which took 5 techs 5 hours to complete. Turns out, they weren't going to start work until MARCH!!! Their office would get the prints and just automatically call for locates, regardless of when work was starting. EVERYONE including the supervisor was p***ed. We cleared out the rest of the tickets without putting a drop of paint on the ground after informing ATT what had been going on. We had been having problems with this same contractor calling crew-on-site relos on Fridays only to arrive to do the locate with no crew on site. As such, we would have to wait until Monday to find out what was needed only to find out that there was STILL no crew on site on Monday!

[Goldenboy]

The VRAD job I am working on right now is almost 2 miles long. I have been working on it for over a week and have had quite a bit of help on it. I'm guessing we have well over 80 hours into the job and it's only half done.

Like Mr. Blunderbuss said the contractor is making it hard for me. I know this job will take the contractor at least a month to complete because of the shitty ground and abundance of existing utilities. If the contractor would let me know which end they were starting from I could just get ahead of them and keep working with them.

[underground quester]

The VRAD job I am working on right now is almost 2 miles long. I have been working on it for over a week and have had quite a bit of help on it. I'm guessing we have well over 80 hours into the job and it's only half done.

Like Mr. Blunderbuss said the contractor is making it hard for me. I know this job will take the contractor at least a month to complete because of the shitty ground and abundance of existing utilities. If the contractor would let me know which end they were starting from I could just get ahead of them and keep working with them.


I had a job in a newer neighbourhood that was about a mile long. Had to do all the utilities (except CATV) Power, traffic, gas, telephone duct and 900 pair in separate trenches, water, drainage. Took me several days because I also had to do all services to each house.

Then nothing. No work, no re-new locate request nothing, for several months. Then one day I get the ticket again and groan.

So, I asked the contractor. Seems the contractor and the Telephone company were poring over the locate and determining their NEW alignment. They wanted a locate done so they could see where everything was, then they changed alignments. So, had to re-do the locate.

Did this three more times before the work was finally completed. The alignment now looks like a Snakes and ladders game going out onto the street, then between the curb and split sidewalk, at times under the walk and in a few places between p/l and the public walk.

Is it possible Golden this is what your contractor/phone company is up to???
Just a thought.

[Mr Blunderbuss]

There are some tickets that come in calling for locates around cross-boxes. These are usually done by an engineering firm working for ATT who wants to know where their cables are buried as well as any other utilities in the area. This is how I find out a v-rad is going to be installed, eventually.

[Goldenboy]

I did have multiple planning purposes for this long job last year. I finally got ahold of the contractor and they will be on site tomorrow. Lets just hope they are starting from the same end I started from.

The bad thing is they are installing all this fiber and all the houses are fed from old 1960's aircore lines. These lines won't support the U-verse so they'll wind up replacing the copper later. I just wish they'd think ahead and pull a new copper back with the fiber instead of waiting and just creating more trenches.

[sprayandpray]

I did have multiple planning purposes for this long job last year. I finally got ahold of the contractor and they will be on site tomorrow. Lets just hope they are starting from the same end I started from.

The bad thing is they are installing all this fiber and all the houses are fed from old 1960's aircore lines. These lines won't support the U-verse so they'll wind up replacing the copper later. I just wish they'd think ahead and pull a new copper back with the fiber instead of waiting and just creating more trenches.


Why would a telephone engineer do that? That would mean 1 less job for him to re-engineer next year. Job security is what it's all about.

[beyond help]

So how many of you have run into dielectric (untoneable) fiber being installed from MH to Vrad? About 15% of mine are this way.

[Mr Blunderbuss]

In some respects they are thinking ahead. When ATT's contractors have bored in new cable, they'll pull an orange interduct with it for future purposes.

[underground quester]

So how many of you have run into dielectric (untoneable) fiber being installed from MH to Vrad? About 15% of mine are this way.

I have not seen much of this in my territory. However, team mates from other areas are starting to say they are seeing some of this now. Though some is run in with a tracer wire.
I had one contractor in my area putting in a new duct line, so I asked him if he could pull in a 25 pair so I could trace the damned thing. To my VERY PLEASANT surprise, he did.
Then he set the ends in the bottom of a 12 foot vault full of water.
1 outta two ain't bad I guess.

[Goldenboy]

In some respects they are thinking ahead. When ATT's contractors have bored in new cable, they'll pull an orange interduct with it for future purposes.

Now we just have to get the engineers to use the extra interducts. A bunch of my vrad jobs had empty ducts running with copper lines. I let the dig crews know but they said the engineer said they couldn't use the ducts because they didn't know if they were theirs. The prolem is the empty ducts are not on the records so the engineers don't know they are there. It would be too much work to pull up the asbuilts.

[Mr Blunderbuss]

The prolem is the empty ducts are not on the records so the engineers don't know they are there. It would be too much work to pull up the asbuilts.


And yet, if the interduct gets damaged, everyone from the DM on up will want to know why there weren't two marks on the ground.

engineer said they couldn't use the ducts because they didn't know if they were theirs.

The engineer should be picking up the phone and finding out. But that would probably cause him to break a sweat.

[noOT4me]

What is V-RAD and U-Verse short for? And any details on how they actually work?

[Goldenboy]

What is V-RAD and U-Verse short for? And any details on how they actually work?

A VRAD is the big cabinet in the first picture. It is how AT&T converts light from fiber to copper. I'm guessing it's an ancient chinese secret as to how it works.

U-verse is AT&T's version of high speed internet and HD CATV.


https://uverse1.att.com/un/launchAMSS.do

[noOT4me]

Okay. I have always just called these fiber huts. Just some new terminology to store away in my brain.

[underground quester]

A VRAD is the big cabinet in the first picture. It is how AT&T converts light from fiber to copper. I'm guessing it's an ancient chinese secret as to how it works.

U-verse is AT&T's version of high speed internet and HD CATV.


https://uverse1.att.com/un/launchAMSS.do


It would be interesting to attend a course to see how all of this fiber to copper signal conversion works as they are starting to put in a great many of these now in the NEW subdivisions I work (in conjunction with cross connects).

[Goldenboy]

It would be interesting to attend a course to see how all of this fiber to copper signal conversion works as they are starting to put in a great many of these now in the NEW subdivisions I work (in conjunction with cross connects).

I've always wondered the same thing. Also with the CATV how they can convert the fiber to co-axial in a small amp ped. It's kind of funny how we locate all this stuff but really have no idea how alot of it works.

[underground quester]

I've always wondered the same thing. Also with the CATV how they can convert the fiber to co-axial in a small amp ped. It's kind of funny how we locate all this stuff but really have no idea how alot of it works.


Yes you are soooo right.

Kinda like me and computers. Can turn them on, click go, then I'm lost.....

[big boots mcghee]

I've always wondered the same thing. Also with the CATV how they can convert the fiber to co-axial in a small amp ped. It's kind of funny how we locate all this stuff but really have no idea how alot of it works.

Ain't that the truth. When I broke in to this industry years ago it was with a company that only located electric, and their training class was three weeks long and they went through so much more than just the locating aspect of things. I consider myself fortunate for going through that extensive training because it really helped and I do utilize a lot of what I was taught to this day. In my opinion, it can only help us to know more of how things work and why things do what they do.

[beyond help]

Okay. I have always just called these fiber huts. Just some new terminology to store away in my brain.Fiber huys are about 4 times the size and are ment to break digital signal into analog (analog is not what it used to be) for a rather long distance. A vrad is ment for a short run of copper and a longer run of fiber for quicker speed and higher quality to a residential area.

[Goldenboy]

So how many of you have run into dielectric (untoneable) fiber being installed from MH to Vrad? About 15% of mine are this way.

I've actually only run across one with a sheathless fiber. It really threw me for a loop because out here AT&T never uses sheathless fiber. And they didn't pull a tracer wire with so I had to call the I&R guy in my area and have him send a crew out to push a wire through one of the empty ducts so I could locate it.

[beyond help]

I've actually only run across one with a sheathless fiber. It really threw me for a loop because out here AT&T never uses sheathless fiber. And they didn't pull a tracer wire with so I had to call the I&R guy in my area and have him send a crew out to push a wire through one of the empty ducts so I could locate it.Be thankful. Had 3 different jobs today where I had to pull out the fish tape (approx 200' each) and shove it in. And they wonder why it takes me so long.

[underground quester]

In my area the phone companies are installing 1 Vrad, 1 Cross Connect, 2 pedestals and 1 vault all in a 12 ft x 12 ft area.
Unfortunately, they covered up the conduit and cabling before I could get a picture but you should have seen the freekin spider web of conduit/cabling running every which direction.

The vault can be seen just between the vrad and the 2 tel peds near the green post.



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[Goldenboy]

They don't put the two peds in the areas of our VRADs. The hardest part of locating these areas is that alot of the cables actually only run a few feet. This can make for a very difficult locate. I've found the best way to locate it is to unbond all the peds in the area before even trying to locate it. If you just unbond one ped at a time it's hard to locate because the cable runs just a few feet and then you blow your own signal right out of the ped your trying to run to. I don't know if you understand what I'm saying.