NYC utility photo?

[2RUDE]

I was just telling a guy today, about a photo that was on here a year or so ago of a street in Manhatten I believe it was, where they were putting in some new electric vaults. Anyways, all the blacktop was removed from the whole st., and it was ungodly what was in the ground. Anybody know what pic. I'm referring to?, and if so could you re-post it?

[TheCableVine]

I looked for it but I couldn't find it.

[FiosKing]

not sure but if you need pics of NYC locating i can send you some i used to do markouts in the city... its a mega bitch to do

[Dave72]

Sometimes we do a locate (tel), and then get called back on a 'hit'.. but it turns out to be some old abandoned line that engineering erased on the drawings..
Often I joke about how it must be like in big cities like NY etc..
Mega biatch no doubt.. lol

[Wingfoot]

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[sprayandpray]

I knew Wing would come through!

[Locator in NY]

The Company i owrk for does the markouts in Manhattn. I hear they have great pics. I will try and get my hands on some and post.

[Goldenboy]

It looks like there is enough abandoned copper under that city to build a whole new city.

[Jcbro86]

It looks like there is enough abandoned copper under that city to build a whole new city.

that makes me wonder, all of the abandoned utilities that just get left in the ground, do they biodegrade into friendly stuff for the environment or do the utility companies just kind of kick the can down the road for future generations to clean up?

i'm glad i've never had such a congested area as that nyc photo. i'll be honest, i would probably spray as many good signals as i could but it would tempting to paint every signal i got good or not just to feel safe.

[Goldenboy]

that makes me wonder, all of the abandoned utilities that just get left in the ground, do they biodegrade into friendly stuff for the environment or do the utility companies just kind of kick the can down the road for future generations to clean up?

i'm glad i've never had such a congested area as that nyc photo. i'll be honest, i would probably spray as many good signals as i could but it would tempting to paint every signal i got good or not just to feel safe.

They don't decompose at all. I know where I live they are starting to pull out old abandoned lines from conduit systems and reclaim the copper but all the direct buried lines just stay there forever. We've joked around for years that the phone companies could become rich if they could find and remove all of their old lines.

[TheCableVine]

that makes me wonder, all of the abandoned utilities that just get left in the ground, do they biodegrade into friendly stuff for the environment or do the utility companies just kind of kick the can down the road for future generations to clean up? ....

In 100,000 years when we have another ice age, all of these lines (and anything else in the ground) will be ground into a fine powder and deposited in mounds of dirt somewhere. I'm not so worried about it.

In the short term I think they will be left as they are. In the long term you may have a group or two push congress to have an abandonded utilities clean-up act that will require the utility companies to remove abandoned lines or just remove any lines abandoned from the date of the act and into the future. I think it is a good idea myself but the costs would be great. But, as I said, I'm not so worried about it.

[ProfessionalLocator]

In 100,000 years when we have another ice age, all of these lines (and anything else in the ground) will be ground into a fine powder and deposited in mounds of dirt somewhere. I'm not so worried about it.

In the short term I think they will be left as they are. In the long term you may have a group or two push congress to have an abandonded utilities clean-up act that will require the utility companies to remove abandoned lines or just remove any lines abandoned from the date of the act and into the future. I think it is a good idea myself but the costs would be great. But, as I said, I'm not so worried about it.

My bet is that utilities, except maybe oil pipelines, will be left abandoned in place.

The stuff in the city duct lines is no great problem, it is often pulled out so the duct can be used for another line.

It is the direct buried stuff in the suburbs that will raise public outcry.

First thing should be the expense which would be great.

First thing actually would be people objecting to having their yards trenched open with work that would destroy the landscaping of most yards around the easement.

Some years ago in one of my areas the contractor put too small a phone cable in phase two of a subdivision. When phase three started up they had to trench in an additional cable, through the yards of the completed homes which now had people living in them. The homeowners raised such a fuss that the phone company made them use directional bore.

Those abandoned lines are going to stay right where they are.

[FiosKing]

ill post up some of my markout from back in the day i did in NYC when i find them monday... but wings photos are perfect that is exactly what it looks like... its sucks to alot of the locating for phone lines in NYC cause alot of the time you will also pick up those damn steam lines they have and everything eles lol not to mention you have no where to park or stop haha but it keeps you awake

[Wingfoot]

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There is one intersection at 11th & Walnut in the Downtown Kansas City, Missouri area that resembles the black & white photo above. This intersection has so much going on underground, the utility lines are covered with sand and heavy steel plates set over the sand. When it's time to dig, pull up the plates, vac truck the new trench, put in the new line, refill with sand, reset the plates and then roll fresh asphalt over the top of the plates.

The Downtown area of Kansas City's infrastructure was originally built during the early 1890's. There are still active wooden water mains not on any prints and bamboo gas services Downtown! I've never seen either, but talking to many veteran excavators, a person never knows what surprises lurk when digging Downtown; many small diameter single conduits that may or may not have something in them, unmarked steam pipes, old trolly tracks, transformers in manholes, buried railroad ties that turn out to be wooden water lines!

USIC locates the gas for the Missouri side of Kansas City, but the gas company has their own locate teams (3 to 5 teams depending on the ticket load) to mark the gas lines in a 8 mile by 10 mile section of the oldest part of the Kansas City metro area. These 2-person teams have their hands full; cast iron gas mains, some bamboo service lines, gas meters inside buildings and measurements that are over a hundred years old!

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[Jcbro86]

i heard in smp training class (and just reread it the other day in my field book) that the oldest gas mains were made from wood and came in 3, 4 and 6" sizes. i wonder if any of these old "pipes" have survived the test of time underground or in a museum or if they've all decayed and been replaced with steel and pe. it would be cool to see a picture of these wooden gas mains but i imagine that they were still using the camera that you set up on a tripod and the photographer went under the little curtain for a minute or two and the picture was done, so i doubt any pics are available. shame.