Wire Removal

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Fulthrotl said:
a track hoe beats a truck any day.
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Sure, back hoe, track hoe, fork lift. I have seen a guy pull the bumper right off a pickup truck trying to pull out cables. A boom truck works well. You need something heavy because there is more weight here than most people will imagine and the fact that it's probably stuck in the conduit.
 
mstrlucky74 said:
So here's a kicker. If you have to pull new feeders through the existing conduits you just removed feeders from you have to run brush and mandrel through it correct or is there another way? Thanks
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You can not use the brush and mandrel but if the conduit is damaged it's going to cost in both time and materials.

You never said how many runs of conduit there are but as the number goes up so does the chances of something going wrong.
 
Indoor or outdoor? We have done several missle launch facilities, where they switch out the 600mcm every so many years. It was about 350'. We used our crane to pull the old wires out, swab the pipe twice, then pull new conductors.
Obviously if it's indoor a tigger would be the ticket.
 
The last time I was involved in one of these it was a disaster recovery. The demolition contractor was using a forklift to pull the 500 kcmil copper feeders from a branch circuit panel. Determinating the supply side of the conductors is an important part of this process that for some reason was overlooked.

The wire pulled the feeder breaker which pulled the energized 3000 amp busses together. The resulting explosion destroyed the four section gear.

One conclusion is that testing the conductors dead does not ensure that you can pull them safely.
 
I misread the threat title........thought there was a letter missing........
My optimism lives on.
 
Dr Duke said:
Indoor or outdoor? We have done several missle launch facilities, where they switch out the 600mcm every so many years. It was about 350'. We used our crane to pull the old wires out, swab the pipe twice, then pull new conductors.
Obviously if it's indoor a tigger would be the ticket.
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Z
If tigger isn't available, you might use a tugger :D

tigger.jpg
 
growler said:
Sure, back hoe, track hoe, fork lift. I have seen a guy pull the bumper right off a pickup truck trying to pull out cables. A boom truck works well. You need something heavy because there is more weight here than most people will imagine and the fact that it's probably stuck in the conduit.
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well, in the case of the pulls in my video, it turns out there were kearneys in the
middle of the run, direct buried in sand, about 5' deep. a few of the runs didn't
come out, but instead pulled apart at the kearneys. pulling a 750 MCM kearney
apart is not something you are gonna have much luck with, using the shop truck.
the sheave i used was the block off a 100 ton crane, and weighed about 3 tons,
so it didn't move around much at all, but the track hoe was rocking back on it's
tracks breaking the kearneys.

there was a 3' x 4' 12" grade ring sat there, as a junction box, filled with sand,
and 5' of the hardest compacted aggregate you've ever seen on top of it.

and that speaks to the OP's question of "do we need to mandrel?"

i am also a staunch supporter of the muletape over string debate. there is no
way i'm trusting a piece of string as opposed to a muletape. the last large underground
job i had, when it was over, i had "wasted" probably three to four wheelbarrows worth
of 1,200# muletape. best $2,000 ever wasted.

i've seen folks pull a mandrel with string. lord love a duck, if you break that string, you
now have a cork in the middle of a run. mandrels are wonderful, if you pull them in with
a muletape, and have another muletape behind them, so you have a fresh muletape in
the pipe to pull with, or a way to get the mandrel out if things don't go well.

i'd use a brush instead of a mandrel. it'll smooth any debris out, and won't get stuck,
and will give you a good feel as to how deformed the raceway is. sand or incidental debris
won't seriously harm your pull, and if distributed evenly, shouldn't be noticeable. a
mandrel is an all or nothing answer to a variable question, imho.
 
Just like pulling in, when pulling out the conduit end must be secured, or you will pull the conduit out of the ground. Secured as in poured concrete, if not braced against your puller. We would use a bucket truck with a cat head, and leg from the truck would push down on the conduit, take some half hitches and pull, slide the half hitches down and go again.
Or if you have room set up a tri pod and large pulling sheave, tie to a truck and then you can pull out in one shot.

If you have no experience get some help, lots of ways to to get hurt.
 
mstrlucky74 said:
Looking at a job with several sets of duct banks with 500 mcm. Run is about 500'. Wire to be pulled out and conduit abandoned.

Anyone ever have a job like this? Ive heard that sometimes removing wire in this situation could take a lot longer than installing depending on certain factors. How they heck could you anticipate these unforeseen conditions and labor it accurately?

Could someone briefly describe the steps involved to remove wire in this situation? Thanks a lot!!
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If the scrap value werent so high why bother removing it at all if the conduits are going to be abandoned? If the 500 were aluminum would you be pulling it out?
 
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