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Not as dramatic as Blue’s backhoe adventure, but it sure made my day a mess. I ended yesterday digging the post holes for a fence. Got there this morning and there is an Ameritech truck out front. The guy was still trying to track down the location, but he soon found the phone cable at the bottom of the last hole. The good news is that I did call to get the cables marked, but this spot was marked incorrectly (by at least a foot).
Fortunately, the neighborhood gossip lives next door, so everyone will know that it wasn’t my fault.
I guess I will have to give those marks a wider berth in the future.
Rich Beckman
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Been there. Around here we call Miss Utility, an outfit which marks underground utilities for all the utility companies in one trip. They'll tell you they can only be accurate to within about 18 inches !
*Something to be aware of , at least around hear , when using a locating service they only mark the incoming service to the meter . So far we have found [ the hard way ] a secondary gas line and a secondary water line that once they left the meter tee'd off and went across the yard and wernt marked . I guess they were added sometime after the house was finished , we were building an addition . The locating service may locate these for you if you ask assuming they are metal or have a trace wire buried with them . Chuck
*Will try to post my first picture here.JonC
*My excavator severed an undergroung electric cable while digging a trench for the service to a spec house I was building in an upscale neighborhood. No one was hurt but the next door neighbors lost power for about 6 hours until it was repaired. A few days later I recieved a letter from the neighbor demanding restitution because they had to take their out of town visitors out to eat (coincidentally a very expesive resturaunt). He threatened to sue me if I didn't pay for his evening.Acouple of weeks later hurricane Gloria hit and left half of the neighboorhood without power. The dividing line was between my project and my new "friends" house. His house had no power, my temporary did. He called me the day after the storm and asked if he could run an extension cord from my service to his freezer. He didn't want his recent shipment of beef to spoil.Big ones for sure.
*Rick...did you give it to him? - jb
*Reminds me of a few years back I'm working maintenance at the local University. Friday afternoon about three they send me out with a backhoe and driver to locate a 12" main. We found it alright. To make matters worse after the initial fountain the fire boosters kicked in and really got her going.
*We had the city (small town) do all the locates. Shouldnt have been anything there but a sewer stub. Excavator gets down 4', finds a 6" line and says yahoo, found it on the first try. Takes a saw to it and discovers the city had misplaced a water line. Never did find the sewer stub, had to go 120' to the main.When the I showed up with a camera the excavator dropped that saw and literally sprinted out of the frame. Damn fast for a fat boy.JonC
*I bet he did! :)Does anyone know any info on the Chicago contractor driving piles who dumped the Chicago River into the system of underground tunnels a few years ago? Never heard a post-mortem on the Great Flood. For non-Chicagoans, the city many years ago found it easiest to raise the street level one floor -- there is this huge underground network of abandoned tunnels beneath the street, including old shop fronts, etc. Like Planet of the Apes.
*My answer to him was " No problem Mr. Smith, help yourself, It's times like these neighbors should help each other out with the unexpected". I can only hope he was intelligent enough to catch my sarcasm.
*About 12-14 years ago I had my house re-wired and the electrician was un-able to get the work inspected because he was afraid to drive in the ground rod.There was a gas line very close to where he needed the ground rod to go.The gas company was refusing to come out and mark the line.Then I remembered the gas bill I pay every month.At that time it always contained a flier "call before you dig" along with each bill.Now I am relly pissed cause here I am trying" to call before I dig" and the gas company is blowing me Off.So my wife gets on the phone with the P.U.C.O.(public utilities commision of Ohio) These are the folks who have to O.K. any increase in utility charges in this state.20 minutes after she hangs up the phone with the P.U.C.O the Gas Co. truck is at our house marking the lineI guess you have to hit these utilities where it hurts,and it helps if they are currently lobbying for a rate increase.Good Luck,Stephen