looking at the contents of an underground manhole via underground prints...

**scap** · February 8th, 2009, 01:02 PM

Me having to get into a manhole is becoming less and less of a pain in the ass, which, of course is natural as a locator gets experience under the belt. At first, fencejobs are a pain...Then, a month or two goes by, and it becomes little more of a nuisance than a drop. (most of them at least, one guy had a 1200 and two 900's, AND a duct running through his back yard...they had to hand dig alot of stuff lol)

Most of my locates that are not single address tickets involve having to open a manhole with a tool that was clearly, clearly not designed by a locator...(we use this new thing because some guy hurt his back awhile back using the original tool, which is exceptional. Unless you weigh about 90 pounds, and hurricane winds blow you across the street, etc.) The current tool we use, sucks. It's a 40 lb long steel thing with 3 hooks attached, only 1 of which you need at any given time....and there's a little 'pedal' on the bottom of it, and you're supposed to use your foot to open a manhole (I've never had this work for me, I just get the hook in there and then stabilize myself, and lift up sorta like a 'dead lift' technique....I lift with my legs, not my back...

But wouldn't it rule, to have the intelligence to never have to open a manhole...EVER? Just to have such ability at reading underground prints quickly, that you can identify exactly what pedestal to open up and hook onto, to get your duct run with a much better signal than a ring clamp would give you to boot! I can't tell you how many PAINS IN THE ASS this resolves!

The worst part about getting into a manhole is when you find one like this...

The manholes full of rushing water. Must FISH with clamp to get signal. (****ed up situation, but after ten minutes of fishing, you'll get it.) This ****ing event should be added to the locate rodeo..."BOBBIN FOR DUCTS" ...Catchy, eh?

**scap** · February 8th, 2009, 01:03 PM

and for...handholes...there's a really amazing tool I've seen someone use before, it's like a long metal thing with a little tiny sharp curved hook on the end, SO perfect for handholes. I could open a handhole with that easier than I could open a ****in beer with unclipped nails.

**Wag** · February 8th, 2009, 02:27 PM

Yes, my manhole hook doesn't fit very well into some handholes. The phone company guys have those handhole hooks, smaller shinier metal. But my manhole hook is handy in winter when I use the handle end to bang each corner of the HH to unfreeze it, like a sledgehammer. I see AT&T seems to be making more HHs two-piece, which are easier to replace when on a side-hill...

**yahoo** · February 8th, 2009, 02:57 PM

you gotta love "bobbin for ducts" !!!!!!!!!! hahahahah that was a good one scap!!!!

**RD_Wrangler** · February 8th, 2009, 07:27 PM

All in all I'd much rather locate from the MH than trace it back from the ped. I've had to do that before...NOT fun.

An example would be the MH with the 6 pack duct running from hole to hole alongside a VERY upscale neighborhood. Apparently the powers that be decided the MH was quite unatractive and buried under 4 ft of dirt, and then proceeded to build a timber landscaping mountain full of bonzai trees on top of that. Now the MO for this is report it to phone company A, they contact City planner B, and they contact said community manager C to get it uncovered right? WRONG!!! If you live in a neighborhood where the avg. home is 10,000 sq. ft. and cost well into the 6 figures, apparently you can tell everyone to go to hell, AND THEY"LL LET YOU DO IT!

Now this was no big deal for the duct run, I just ran down to the next nearest MH, clipped and ran. It was the 14 laterals, (7 of which were HP) that I had to track down peds/enclosures for, (one of which <fiber> ran INTO the neighborhood country club, yeah no trouble gaining access to THAT FTTP...).

Nope, all in all I'd rather locate it all out of the MH, one location, DC what I can, clip what I can't, draining the things usually only takes 15 min. or so, and you gotta wait that long to ventilate anyways!

**Locateforlife** · February 8th, 2009, 07:48 PM

Hey it can definitly be a pain to find the manhole but make sure you have your two access points with the pictures of said access points, ensure they are noted on the clear out and that you also have notified your stupervisor

. If you don't do that you could get caught by the butt kissing qaulity techs or WORSE YET you get a damage and face termination for not following procedure.

Don't forget to get ALL your tickets done in a timely manner and without a damage.

**scap** · February 11th, 2009, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by RD_Wrangler

All in all I'd much rather locate from the MH than trace it back from the ped. I've had to do that before...NOT fun.

An example would be the MH with the 6 pack duct running from hole to hole alongside a VERY upscale neighborhood. Apparently the powers that be decided the MH was quite unatractive and buried under 4 ft of dirt, and then proceeded to build a timber landscaping mountain full of bonzai trees on top of that. Now the MO for this is report it to phone company A, they contact City planner B, and they contact said community manager C to get it uncovered right? WRONG!!! If you live in a neighborhood where the avg. home is 10,000 sq. ft. and cost well into the 6 figures, apparently you can tell everyone to go to hell, AND THEY"LL LET YOU DO IT!

Now this was no big deal for the duct run, I just ran down to the next nearest MH, clipped and ran. It was the 14 laterals, (7 of which were HP) that I had to track down peds/enclosures for, (one of which <fiber> ran INTO the neighborhood country club, yeah no trouble gaining access to THAT FTTP...).

Nope, all in all I'd rather locate it all out of the MH, one location, DC what I can, clip what I can't, draining the things usually only takes 15 min. or so, and you gotta wait that long to ventilate anyways!

RD what kind of manhole tool do you have

and, that sounds like a fun locate ;o

**RD_Wrangler** · February 11th, 2009, 12:44 PM

scap, remember I'm not in the field at the moment. Been out of locating a little over a year now. Plan on going back come Spring.

I used the basic old fashioned MH hook. Handle on one end, hook on the other. They had the chain pulls available to us, but I detested them. As long as it's properly, the hook is the way for me. They're great snake grabbers too. Just hook and FLING!

**scap** · February 11th, 2009, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by RD_Wrangler

scap, remember I'm not in the field at the moment. Been out of locating a little over a year now. Plan on going back come Spring.

I used the basic old fashioned MH hook. Handle on one end, hook on the other. They had the chain pulls available to us, but I detested them. As long as it's properly, the hook is the way for me. They're great snake grabbers too. Just hook and FLING!

Funny you said that. We just had a king snake scare the hell out of a tech.

What you have is a gravy tool. The old fashioned ones almost make opening manholes a pleasure, as ridiculous as that sounds