Black Wire

[Goldenboy]

Metro Dig at Tysons Stirs Underground Intrigue
High Anxiety Over Top-Security Cable

By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 31, 2009



This part happens all the time: A construction crew putting up an office building in the heart of Tysons Corner a few years ago hit a fiber optic cable no one knew was there.

This part doesn't: Within moments, three black sport-utility vehicles drove up, a half-dozen men in suits jumped out and one said, "You just hit our line."

Whose line, you may ask? The guys in suits didn't say, recalled Aaron Georgelas, whose company, the Georgelas Group, was developing the Greensboro Corporate Center on Spring Hill Road. But Georgelas assumed that he was dealing with the federal government and that the cable in question was "black" wire -- a secure communications line used for some of the nation's most secretive intelligence-gathering operations.

"The construction manager was shocked," Georgelas recalled. "He had never seen a line get cut and people show up within seconds. Usually you've got to figure out whose line it is. To garner that kind of response that quickly was amazing."

Black wire is one of the looming perils of the massive construction that has come to Tysons, where miles and miles of secure lines are thought to serve such nearby agencies as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Counterterrorism Center and, a few miles away in McLean, the Central Intelligence Agency. After decades spent cutting through red tape to begin work on a Metrorail extension and the widening of the Capital Beltway, crews are now stirring up tons of dirt where the black lines are located.

"Yeah, we heard about the black SUVs," said Paul Goguen, the engineer in charge of relocating electric, gas, water, sewer, cable, telephone and other communications lines to make way for Metro through Tysons. "We were warned that if they were hit, the company responsible would show up before you even had a chance to make a phone call."

Read entire story HERE

[yahoo]

i wonder if we have a black wire in Louisiana...ha

[ifinditunderground]

We are heavily involved in this entire project. Bring it on! No black SUV's yet though.

[TheCableVine]

If it is so important you'd think they'd have someone monitoring the activity around the "black wire". We called it mark and monitor. It must not be THAT important.

[ifinditunderground]

It's pretty damn important stuff, the problem is, it is run by the Gov't. Therefore in their brilliance, they don't want anybody to know where it is, they 1. Won't tell ANYBODY where it is......including excavators. 2. They don't have any locators to watch over it/mark it. Why? Dunno, but the handholes are typically buried 3 feet as well. It is almost always dielectric cable as well making it totally unlocatable anyway, because who in the Gov't would think ahead far enough to put a LMS system on it either. Why? Because nobody is gonna mark it anyway. It is a really ugly, vicious circle. The only saving grace for the contractors is, as stated in the article, they typically won't charge the excavators for hitting it, or to repair it. I've dealt with these cables a couple of times......the conversation with the excavator digging around it usually starts with: "Rumor is there is a black box line around here somewhere, but nobody can tell me anything definite about it, including which side of the road it is on, what can you do for me?" Three words most SUE techs have grumbled more than once....Vacuum Excavation Trenching.

[GPGrasshopper]

We have a few of those mysterious black wires around my stomping grounds. I have actually seen two hits on them and have seen the black SUV's and the dudes in the suits. They never will say exactly what it is or where it goes, they said it was a matter of nation security, but they seem to get very upset when it's hit. They went so far as to confiscate the film and delete any digital pictures anyone had on one of the ones I was at. One of the guys hung around afterwards and would tell the contractor where he could dig and where he could not dig.

[advanceMan]

that's some crazy ass shit. Kinda cool. Never heard of that here, gonna start asking. i heard there were some kind of government lines connecting the one armed bandits at the casino's or some thing like that(know anything about that UGQ?) but that's not as cool as "black wire". Good story.

[advanceMan]

I drive a black SUV. '96 Sub, she's AWESOME!

[advanceMan]

one more thing, IFINDit. how are involved in that? you seem to know plenty.

[ifinditunderground]

I don't understand the question. Ask a more specific question and I'll be happy to answer you.

[advanceMan]

We are heavily involved in this entire project. Bring it on! No black SUV's yet though.

Do you mean the project in the article?

[ifinditunderground]

Do you mean the project in the article?

Yes Advance we are working with several different companies providing Utility Locating support and Vacuum Excavation support through the Tysons Corner section of this project. Specifically, in the news article posted this weekend on the site, there is a picture of a tunneling crew pushing a large casing pipe into place, we have done all of the utility locating and vac-ex ahead of their drilling crews. We are anxiously awaiting to hear back on a locating and vac-ex contract for the second half of this project which has not been started yet. Keep your fingers crossed for us, we think we have the leg up on all of the competition.

[advanceMan]

I will, sounds like you're doin' some advancin' yourself.

[OVUS1]

Hmmmm, located all over Northern VA and WDC proper, even got a locate ticket once for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (White House had a bad water leak), but never ran across these. Plenty of guys hanging around with some kind of weapon in a black bag tho..... I do know that they have some "restricted access manholes" in DC, and never got a chance to peek inside. Installed some equipment in the Pentagon back in the late 90's, saw some cool stuff, but was escorted and watched every second I was in......


You sure it wasn't the cable company sending folks out in black SUV's? They are pretty militant up there.........

[GPGrasshopper]

Got a business card from a director of the regional NSA offices on one of those damage sites after the feds took all the film. He was not not driving a SUV. He drove a Chevy Impala.