# Calling before you dig



## walkerj (May 13, 2007)

Last week on a jobsite, the GC was drilling shafts for the foundations.

They drilled ~20 the first couple of days but on the last one they drilled into a DB 13.8kv line.

Utilities had been located exactly as they were drawn on the civil plan, going out to the street.

But, the line actually ran to the rear of the property without using the servitude(utility owned line)

Moral of the story: ask for a real locate and make sure they use their locator, not the plans.

No one was hurt, but it went boom and blew the end of the 36" drill off.


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

offf that sucks 
glad that no one was hurt


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

Whose decision was it to dig without using an on-site location?








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## walkerj (May 13, 2007)

Well, the pics would do no good because the temp repair was made before I made it on site.

Usually, the locates are close enough to know were to dig carefully.

In this case, this was the third locate and it was 200' off and going the wrong way.

LAOneCall will likely pay for this fix, along with Entergy for having their primaries running through the middle of someones property with no knowledge of it running there. :001_huh:

No documentation or any excuse was given for the line being where it was.

The POCO engineer was back peddling and stumbling over his words. What a sight to see


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

entergy made a mistake - and has to live up to it 

I will have trouble accepting that.:laughing:


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## walkerj (May 13, 2007)

nolabama said:


> entergy made a mistake - and has to live up to it
> 
> I will have trouble accepting that.:laughing:


 
Yea, they usually blame this kind of stuff on others, but they installed this one themselves:blink:.

I guess the lesson learned is don't be at the job when they are drilling and don't trust the utilities locator guy.


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## Podagrower (Mar 16, 2008)

On my first apartment site, they found a 24" sewer line in the middle of the building slab(All locates done). It didn't break when they found it, and they called the city to find out why it was there. The city eventually decided it was an old line, abandoned in place, and they told the contractor to demo what was in the way. Well, when the contractor cut it open, it was not abandoned, it was still in use, very much in use:whistling2:...


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## Buddha In Babylon (Mar 23, 2009)

hahaha, that blows


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Podagrower said:


> On my first apartment site, they found a 24" sewer line in the middle of the building slab(All locates done). It didn't break when they found it, and they called the city to find out why it was there. The city eventually decided it was an old line, abandoned in place, and they told the contractor to demo what was in the way. Well, when the contractor cut it open, it was not abandoned, it was still in use, very much in use:whistling2:...


I saw a 24" sewer force man get smashed, and that ditch turned into something like white water rapids, only it was more of a grey-brown color. :laughing:


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## Marcus (Mar 30, 2010)

Do you guys have a phone service over there? We have 'Dial before you dig' (Call 1100) Only problem is that it takes about 2-3 days to get drawings through, otherwise I just call a local service locator.

Funny story: While I was at TAFE doing my telephone cabling classes during my apprenticeship we heard about a fiber optic cable that got dug up while contractors were installing pits & conduits. Turns out they were digging outside the Dial Before You Dig call centre and severed the incoming fiber link to the building.


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

Forget local numbers.

All you need to remember is 811.


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## jwjrw (Jan 14, 2010)

MDShunk said:


> I saw a 24" sewer force man get smashed, and that ditch turned into something like white water rapids, only it was more of a grey-brown color. :laughing:


Have a friend working in a hospital saw a "puddle in the basement" with a board in the middle. Stepped on the board (which was floating in a sewer clean out) and splash he went under in that grey water)
That was 10 years ago and he is still called "puddle boy"


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## Marcus (Mar 30, 2010)

480sparky said:


> Forget local numbers.
> 
> All you need to remember is 811.


Thats clever, I bet theres not _that_ many people whos fat fingers dial *911* by mistake.

Also, is it true that 99.9% of phone numbers in the US start with '555'?


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

Marcus said:


> ............Also, is it true that 99.9% of phone numbers in the US start with '555'?



Only the ones on TV and in the moves.


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)




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