Why does UFER connection need to be accessible?

[wrobotronic]

Hello All,
I had a customer ask me "Why the UFER connection had to be accessible after it was inspected?" Unfortunately, the only response I could muster was, "because that's what the book says and that's how I do it, by the book" <Cringe>

But looking in the book I could not find this to be a "requirement", only that it is permitted to be so. 250.68 C3

My question then is: Is it a requirement for the UFER connection to the GEC be made accessible, if so where and why?


TYIA,
Wrobo

 

[Mouser]

250.68 Grounding Electrode Conductor and Bonding
Jumper Connection to Grounding Electrodes.

(A) Accessibility. All mechanical elements used to terminate
a grounding electrode conductor or bonding jumper to
a grounding electrode shall be accessible.

Exception No. 1: An encased or buried connection to a
concrete-encased, driven, or buried grounding electrode
shall not be required to be accessible.

 

[Cow]

I make my ufer connections in the concrete all the time. There is no issue if an inspector sees it before it's poured.

 

[ActionDave]

I make my ufer connections in the concrete all the time. There is no issue if an inspector sees it before it's poured.

You can make the connection down in the concrete and you are good to go. It's when you bug on to a piece of rebar stubbed out of the top of the foundation that you have to keep it accessible. What is the reason? That's just the way it is. Bruce Hornsby wrote a song about it.

 

[jap]

Common sense would say that because of the concrete encasement there's not much chance of the termination coming loose.

Where as if it is a mechanical connection in any other place that wasn't protect by such a protective barrier that the connection is more likely to become compromised and the accessibility might just be to be able to reconnect it if need be would it not?

JAP>