Great moments in utility locating

**TheCableVine** · January 13th, 2010, 04:50 PM

Okay, here is my great moment in locating. Today I had a ticket way up in the hills. Some might call them mountains depending on where you are from. It was raining pretty good and I was comfortably entrenched in my van. I arrived at the locate which was on this windy road. My prints didn't show anything there so I did a drive by so I could get a visual. Nothing was there. So, Instead of turning around right there I went up the road a bit to find a widespot. It turns out the end of the road was just around a couple of corners. I flipped a U-turn and wouldn't you know it, my tire got in some mud and literally sucked my whole van into this muddy grassy area. I was stuck real good. It all happened so fast. I was a bit shocked. I couldn't move forward and I sure as heck couldn't move backward. I put gravel in front of the tires as well as broken asphalt to give it some traction. It wouldn't budge an inch. The tires just spun.

Luckily, I had passed a road crew working down the hill about a half mile. I walked down most of the way and was picked up by the mail lady. "Is that your van she asked?" Did she really need to ask? She took me the rest of the way. Again, luckily I had dealt with this crew several times. I'm glad I'm nice to the crews. I asked for help and they looked like they didn't want to help but they ended up pulling me out. One guy said they could get in trouble but since I was up there to do locates for them they didn't see it as a problem. As they were pulling me out the van kept sliding back towards the rut it was in. I would never have gotten out by myself.

Always be good to your crews. You never know when you might need their help.

**Mke** · January 13th, 2010, 05:28 PM

mmmm, reminds me of a similar situation. I was doing a One-call Locate up in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere happens to be a mile or so up a gravel road that is connected to a driveway for a seperate house. I started heading up this gravel road not knowing if I was heading in the right direction, got up to the top of this hill, and they were building a new house. The Drill for the well was still up there, but nothing else. It looked dry enough, so I went to turn around and the back wheels slipped off the gravel road and sunk into the mud. I was about 2hrs away from any co-worker, However I was only about 30min from Swagman, thanks to the tow ropes that were on the Drill Rig, Swag pulled me free with his jeep lickety split.

**hellbilly** · January 13th, 2010, 05:52 PM

Originally Posted by TheCableVine

Always be good to your crews. You never know when you might need their help.

good point, sometimes it pays to bite your tongue.

**yahoo** · January 13th, 2010, 06:41 PM

can' t tell ya how many time i got stuck on a dead end rd......what a ruined day it becomes.

**ProfessionalLocator** · January 13th, 2010, 08:06 PM

Really pays to be good to the crews.

I was doing a marking in a new subdivision still under construction. I was marking out a corner lot that was very muddy due to rain. The ground on this corner of the lot had been churned up so it was all very soft.

I found myself sunk to both my knees in the mud. No matter what I did I could not get free. I had my phone in my pocket and was about to call for help when a crew installing gas services came buy and found me. They got their shovels and some plywood and dug me out. All except one boot which is still buried in that yard.

**TheCableVine** · January 13th, 2010, 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by ProfessionalLocator

Really pays to be good to the crews.

I was doing a marking in a new subdivision still under construction. I was marking out a corner lot that was very muddy due to rain. The ground on this corner of the lot had been churned up so it was all very soft.

I found myself sunk to both my knees in the mud. No matter what I did I could not get free. I had my phone in my pocket and was about to call for help when a crew installing gas services came buy and found me. They got their shovels and some plywood and dug me out. All except one boot which is still buried in that yard.

That is funny. I can just imagine how i would feel if I was stuck like that.

**ProfessionalLocator** · January 13th, 2010, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by TheCableVine

That is funny. I can just imagine how i would feel if I was stuck like that.

Well the crew that dug me out thought it was pretty funny. Took twice as long to get me out becasue they were laughing too hard to shovel.

For awhile there I was afraid I would never get out. Some crew would hydro seed around me and I would get sold as a lawn ornament along with the house.

**TheCableVine** · January 13th, 2010, 10:26 PM

Did they get a photo?

**Utilitrack** · January 14th, 2010, 10:13 AM

Some of you coastal locators may have experienced this... had to locate some 345KV electrical submarine cables crossing a tidal river at low tide because the crew had to anchor a barge to build a new bridge. As I was chasing out the cables to the waters edge the mud got deeper and deeper until both legs were stuck up to my knees with the tide coming back in... luckily utility reps and engineering company were on site to pry me out, I just like Professional - I left a boot in the Fore River. Next time the mark out was called in I sent another guy to the site, so that I could watch and laugh at him, unfortunately the man was was much lighter than me and moved around the mud flat like a professional clamdigger or water bug. I don't see clamdigging in my future.

**ifinditunderground** · January 14th, 2010, 10:29 AM

Back when my company first got started, I was still working in the field. I took our brand-new Vac truck (didn't even have logos on it yet) out to the very first jobsite we would be excavating test holes on. This site is the Naval Intelligence Center in Maryland and has an IMMACULATE lawn, the picture of perfection, mowed and groomed weekly. It's my understanding that the Admiral over this facility took great pride in the appearance of the campus and was frequently seen outside inspecting the condition of the lawn. We pulled up in our sparkly new vac truck, pulled out our plans and set up several test hole locations, and performed the markouts on the subject utilities. I did a "Walk" over the areas I intended to drive to verify that the lawn could support the weight of the truck as is customary before driving onto unpaved surfaces. We had had a very wet spring but the grass appeared to be able to support the weight of the truck......but since the truck was new to me, I really had no idea how firm it had to be to support the weight. Finally, it was time to dig. I climbed up in the truck, drove up over the curb and proceeded to drive out into the middle of that flawless lawn. About 2/3rds of the way in, the truck hit a particularly wet spot and immediately sunk all 22,000 pounds right down to the axles on all 4 corners. The largest military-owned vehicle on this site was a 2WD Ford Explorer used by the Secutiry for site patrols on the ASPHALT ROADS. Fortunately just off campus a contractor was running an AWD construction forklift powerful enough and with enough traction to pull me the 300' back to asphalt pavement. It took 2 hours to make the arrangements to get the vehicle into the facility to pull me out. Final Damage: Bruised reputation, 400 feet of immaculate lawn to fill and repair, no money made for the day and 1 case of beer for the kind contractor who took the time out of his day to pull us out of the grass. We never did hear from the Admiral about the ruts and repair, but it's my understanding that he was less than happy about the damage to his lawn......and wanted to know why that truck was stuck to it's axles in HIS lawn.

After that experience, and while I was still in the field, I had to have myself extracted out of a cornfield in West Virginia -I was 3,000 feet from the nearest road on that one-, countless construction sites and muddy road shoulders, a utility easement or two and the Crown Jewel: Removal from the beautiful front lawn of the Library of Congress Building in Washington D.C. It's a fairly common occurance for us when the weather turns bad, but I'll never forget the embarrasment of getting the truck stuck for hours in the wide open lawn before ever starting the secondary engine for the very first test holes.

**GWJ_CAS** · January 14th, 2010, 05:05 PM

One of my guys locating in the snow, Champaign, IL, January 12, 2010

**yahoo** · January 14th, 2010, 07:34 PM

priceless dude ........priceless!!!

**beyond help** · January 14th, 2010, 08:48 PM

Many years ago when I was a newbie, I was marking out a duct run (phone) when all of a sudden the muddy ground I was walking on was chest high. It was a pain in the ass to breathe. My arms were sticking up (one with a paint stick and one with a receiver). Luckily, I was right infront of the police station. Needless to say the first cop to walk out was a early 30's drop dead gorgeous brunette...And her 50 yo overweight male partner (who just busted out laughing when he saw me). They came over and started to pull me out (she grabbed my receiver, and he grabbed my paint gun). I was paying so much attention to the cleavage (she was bent over) that I didn't even notice that the old cop had my paint gun pointed directly at his face when I accidentally pulled the trigger. Nothing like a cop with an orange face.

**Mke** · January 15th, 2010, 08:32 AM

Another moment I have involves a Turkey.

I'm a city boy, and started my locating career in a very Rural area. I pulled up to preform a locate on a typical rural location (out in the middle of nowhere). I see a large Rotwieler on the porch of this hous, and as soon as I crack the door, this dog starts to head my direction. I start getting a little nervous, but he's not showing any aggression so I call him over to me, and he's just a big teddy bear. After scratchin his belly, I noticed that out of the garage, came a nice sized turkey (tom). I have had absolutely no dealings with turkeys before, I was thinking they are probably like a goose, some are nice, some are not. There is a big difference between Turkey's and Geese.......
CLAWS, huge claws. When the turkey came closer, the Rot deceided to go take a nap, and before I could open up the hatch on the old Escort wagon, the turkey is at a gallop. I spend the 15-20min trying to out run the turkey around the escort with enough time to pop open the doors without being clawed to death.

I've learned to never leave the vehicle without the paintgun. I've learned that the paintgun doubles as a club, bug spray, or mace.

**RD_Wrangler** · January 15th, 2010, 11:55 PM

Originally Posted by Mke

Another moment I have involves a Turkey.

I'm a city boy, and started my locating career in a very Rural area. I pulled up to preform a locate on a typical rural location (out in the middle of nowhere). I see a large Rotwieler on the porch of this hous, and as soon as I crack the door, this dog starts to head my direction. I start getting a little nervous, but he's not showing any aggression so I call him over to me, and he's just a big teddy bear. After scratchin his belly, I noticed that out of the garage, came a nice sized turkey (tom). I have had absolutely no dealings with turkeys before, I was thinking they are probably like a goose, some are nice, some are not. There is a big difference between Turkey's and Geese.......
CLAWS, huge claws. When the turkey came closer, the Rot deceided to go take a nap, and before I could open up the hatch on the old Escort wagon, the turkey is at a gallop. I spend the 15-20min trying to out run the turkey around the escort with enough time to pop open the doors without being clawed to death.

I've learned to never leave the vehicle without the paintgun. I've learned that the paintgun doubles as a club, bug spray, or mace.

LOL! Yup, as the old wrangler I once worked with said "Them Toms'll spur ya...watch'em"