Do as I (the city) Says, not as they DO
A friend of mine has a rental and she called and said that there was water in the bathtub and later that the renter say that the copper pipes in the basment where dripping.
By the time that I got there the water was gone. And it took me a few minutes to figure out that drain was clogged and copper pipes where not leaking, but that water was being forced out around the stool wax seal and that pipes ran about 1/2 away.
I determined that the lines where clear in the house and opened up the cleanout and ran by 25 ft 3/8″ snake in it. Not expecting to be able to clear anything, but rather to see how far it would go. But in a 4″ drain it just ended up in a knot.
So I told here that she needed to call some one with a sewer machine.
I also happened to mention that the city had just trenched for a new electrical drop. At the house the two places are about 15 ft apart. And by any logic the sewer should run straight to the road (about in the middle of the lot) and the power went to the corner. So they should be far apart. And I added “who knows”. The house was built in 1945.
From the City of Indepenence website.
“Always call before you dig! Digging into unmarked areas is extremely dangerous! Call 1 800 DIG-RITE to have the location of underground utilities marked. There is no charge for this service.”
The city (it is a city electrical utility) has a program to bury drops from the poles. Usually HO pays for the digging and no charge for the connection. But they have some grant money for doing all for “free”.
It took 36 hours to get a plumber out, but they found sewer tile churned up where the power cable had been run. Seems that the city (or their sub) did not do the locate.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Replies
In Austin, apparently the City is exempt from having to provide locate services for sewers and water lines. They do come out when you place the one call, but they don't have to and are not liable for the locations they mark.
On the other hand, the city was replacing some water lines in and around the neighborhood where we were working. In a three month period, they struck gas (lines) that is at least five times. Our gas utility is one of the few that does a great job locating lines including depth of line or tracer if you ask.
I got a citation for insufficient erosion control (I had two layers of the wood fiber mesh with rye grass planted underneath-same as DOT approach). I asked the building inspector how come it was OK for the city to do that (recently covered staging area for above mentioned water line project) but not sufficient for our residential project. Inspectors response-City rules do not apply to City Projects. He looked at the staging area, smiled and tore up the ticket.
Gotta love the government.
Bruce