Keep mouth shut, Tom

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they do thousands of trenchings. there is a cost associated with the waiting time. they probably did some study and found the occasional oops costs less than the cumulative cost of calling.
 
One of my crews hit a forced sewer main the other day that ran through a lift station. GC’s private locate service marked it at 8’ deep, so quite surprising to hit it at 3’ while digging in new primaries.

PM won’t answer my calls. Locator won’t answer my calls. It’s about to get reeeeeal ugly over here.

To clarify the nature of it; pipe didn’t completely burst, but was spraying. The GC has to call in pump trucks to keep the lift station empty while the city turned off the sewer main for repairs. I’m guessing easily a 5-figure bill is coming.

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brantmacga said:
One of my crews hit a forced sewer main the other day that ran through a lift station. GC’s private locate service marked it at 8’ deep, so quite surprising to hit it at 3’ while digging in new primaries.

PM won’t answer my calls. Locator won’t answer my calls. It’s about to get reeeeeal ugly over here.

To clarify the nature of it; pipe didn’t completely burst, but was spraying. The GC has to call in pump trucks to keep the lift station empty while the city turned off the sewer main for repairs. I’m guessing easily a 5-figure bill is coming.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Put some duct tape on it and move on.
 
I jokingly asked the POCO foreman where their diggers were. No humor. He’s blaming the owner for not knowing where the underground was.

Owners not happy because he thinks for the $40,000 cost of underground primary install, they should have figured it out themselves.
 
ptonsparky said:
Customer with a bad private underground today. The POCO hit it yesterday. They didn’t call in for a locate.:)
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But when you call in, they tell you they don’t locate private lines. The customer is responsible to locate them.
 
ptonsparky said:
Owners not happy because he thinks for the $40,000 cost of underground primary install, they should have figured it out themselves.
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WOW what a price..
maybe we are too nice to our customers...
I just priced removing one span of three phase primary and putting it underground(750mcm). All removal Of overhead lines, digging in new UG in conduit, and transferring it over, and it’s a main three phase circuit about a mile out of the station.

$41,000
 
ptonsparky said:
I locate those private lines for a living. Noone called!!
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The customer should have called you...
we tell the customer they are responsible for locating them. Call someone to locate them, or dig them up however they want to find them.
 
Years ago we had a guy hit an NG line, he lifted the bar a pulled about 20' forward, parked, then proceeded to light a cigarette. The job superintendent showed up and the operator asked what he should do and people for miles heard the superintendent say "the first thing you are going to do is put that damn cigarette out" 😄

Roger
 
Did an airport runway approach lighting job and the FAA/airport maintenance did the markings, we dug up the old lighting left and right. The FAA rep. stated if we dig up one more time we are off the project! Airports get Fed. money by how much time the runway is open for landing. I asked him who was responsible for marking the cables? Then why are we digging them up 20' from your markings?
He backed down.
 
ptonsparky said:
Customer should have called, but I sure wouldn’t get a pass by saying “the customer told me it was over there”.
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If it was his private lines you would...

all that aside, I do side work because I have a full(er) time job...
My two best investments were a pipe horn, and a Dynatel 573A fault locator. Yes, they are old, but they work great.
Paid for the Dynatel on my very first bad underground going to a farmers well about 300‘ from his house as ago.

Both locate lines. The pipe horn is better IMO..
 
Hv&Lv said:
If it was his private lines you would...

all that aside, I do side work because I have a full(er) time job...
My two best investments were a pipe horn, and a Dynatel 573A fault locator. Yes, they are old, but they work great.
Paid for the Dynatel on my very first bad underground going to a farmers well about 300‘ from his house as ago.

Both locate lines. The pipe horn is better IMO..
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Pipe horn?
 
Hv&Lv said:
WOW what a price..
maybe we are too nice to our customers...
I just priced removing one span of three phase primary and putting it underground(750mcm). All removal Of overhead lines, digging in new UG in conduit, and transferring it over, and it’s a main three phase circuit about a mile out of the station.

$41,000
Click to expand...
POCO brought the third phase, updated poles and hardware, a little over a half mile, then buried about 300 yards of primary to a new pad mount.
 
petersonra said:
they do thousands of trenchings. there is a cost associated with the waiting time. they probably did some study and found the occasional oops costs less than the cumulative cost of calling.
Click to expand...
A water line contractor crew here hit a jet fuel pipeline in 2004, blew the pipe up for around a 500ft length. Killed the backhoe operator and 4 or 5 others in the crew, some of which they never found enough of to identify. That "associated cost" became a lawsuit against the water pipeline contractor, but it turned out to be the fault of the pipeline owner (Kinder Morgan), who had incorrect records of where it was supposed to be (off by something like 12 feet). That event triggered a new law requiring everyone to have all existing lines and pipes located prior to digging, not just drawings about where they wew SUPPOSED to be.
 
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