Abandoned Utilities

[Goldenboy]

I was wondering if everyone else gets as frustrated as I do with abandoned utilities. It seems like I waste hours a week going to crews who have exposed "unmarked" utilities just to find out they are abandoned. A homeowner digging up their back yard can have 3-5 abandoned drops running through their back yard.

I just wish all these utility companies would use their head and put everything in conduit. Especially the tv and phone drops to houses. They replace these things all the time. If they'd just run the drops in conduit to the house then the drop would last longer and if it went bad they could just pull a new one through the conduit. I've always wondered why they don't do whole subdivisions this way.

[TBONE]

Yep really makes it hard if you like to use inductive locators I usually end up marking the dead ones anyway

[beyond help]

I wonder why mismarks occur

[Goldenboy]

Yep really makes it hard if you like to use inductive locators I usually end up marking the dead ones anyway

Abandoned utilities are the whole reason I do not trust induction at all. I'm not saying I don't use induction but after seeing how much abandoned utilities are in the ground it makes it hard to trust induction.

[underground quester]

We are fortunate here. All of the utility companies we locate for have purchased the same software. They upload additions, deletions to their facilities about once a month or so.

Having said that, of course there is the 2 year delay for new facilities and delays in each company depending on how short staffed they are.

In any event, we are asked to NOT locate the abandoned utilities but to advise the contractor they exist and approximately where they MIGHT exist.

I run in to this more on MAINS, especially distribution gas, more so than service drops. Of course, abandoned H.P. gas is a pain in the butt and no way to locate them, so, we just show a rough alignment on our drawings.

[sir_marks_alot]

it kind of makes your day when you get called to a damage on a project with a substantial amount of cables in it to find out they hit an abandoned line though.... better than them hitting the live one

[Mr Blunderbuss]

Time Warner seems to be the biggest offender of putting more stuff in the ground. Every April-May it's the same thing: call in more locates than even their own crews can bury in 3 days. T-W winds up having to contract their work out to try and keep up. Some homeowners will bury their own drop because they're getting tired of waiting.

[yahoo]

i am at a site where a damage has occured.........the excavator and his family are friends of my family.... 20 x 30 ft hole 12 feet deep...............7 cables for then.....bellsouth......now att.. only two were live the locater a guy named kyle had the two marks correct on top of the two that was live......miracle!!! well the contractor after seeing what was exposed decided to bore under all this 15 ft deep and hit another cable a 300pr that was live brand new not on plats yet........... some one tell me ........who can win in this game we play everyday????? i was mad and it was not even our fault!!!!

[underground quester]

i am at a site where a damage has occured.........the excavator and his family are friends of my family.... 20 x 30 ft hole 12 feet deep...............7 cables for then.....bellsouth......now att.. only two were live the locater a guy named kyle had the two marks correct on top of the two that was live......miracle!!! well the contractor after seeing what was exposed decided to bore under all this 15 ft deep and hit another cable a 300pr that was live brand new not on plats yet........... some one tell me ........who can win in this game we play everyday????? i was mad and it was not even our fault!!!!

The other day in a new area I was locating, I came across at situation where a contractor had laid primary power OVER TOP an 8.5" P.E. gas Main. I thought I was going nuts until they potholed it and saw that my receiver was right!!!! I did NOT expect to find the primary power however ON TOP rather than underneath a gas main. How FREEKIN STUPID, couldn't they change the alignment slightly to bury it deeper (our power here is usually 5 - 6 feet deep, gas 3 - 4 feet deep).

[Goldenboy]

Time Warner seems to be the biggest offender of putting more stuff in the ground. Every April-May it's the same thing: call in more locates than even their own crews can bury in 3 days. T-W winds up having to contract their work out to try and keep up. Some homeowners will bury their own drop because they're getting tired of waiting.

Same thing here. Tons of abandoned tv feeders. This picture here was a fake emergency I got. I was mad that the caller called in an one hour emergency when it was just to put in sewer/water laterals. When I talked to the homeowner he said he was waiting for a month for the laterals so they had tons of time to call in a standard locate ticket. Because they made me mad I hooked up to the two abandoned tv lines just to make them hand dig for more lines.

[TBONE]

In certian cases I will mark the dead ones just so I dont get called out to tell them they are dead when they cut or find them..... Plastic flags GB OMG I would raise some hell about them what a pain to deal with ..sure do love my wire staff flags.

[sprayandpray]

I don't know about your areas but AT&T actually wants us to locate their abandoned drops because they might get the customer back someday. is was my reply!

[locomike]

they are starting to put catv line in conduit at the obx in nc makes it alot better with less abandoned cables but i feel your pain with abandoned power lines

[USIC1]

Same thing here. Tons of abandoned tv feeders. This picture here was a fake emergency I got. I was mad that the caller called in an one hour emergency when it was just to put in sewer/water laterals. When I talked to the homeowner he said he was waiting for a month for the laterals so they had tons of time to call in a standard locate ticket. Because they made me mad I hooked up to the two abandoned tv lines just to make them hand dig for more lines.

That looks like one of my locates...

Can you throw those plastic stem flags or what???

Thats frikin ridiculous that there being used...

[Goldenboy]

No one uses metal flags out here anymore. I don't know why but I sure do miss them. Yeah you can throw them but they won't stick at all. I really miss the days of throwing flags. I really think throwing flags is an art in itselt.