Finding under-ground utilities

[buickanddeere]

This is why hydro-vac trucks have become so popular .

 

[Ray(MO)]

I can find under-ground utilities lines, gas, electric, with a pair of bent L shaped #9 wire that cross when walking over the trench they are buried underground. Is there a way to tell how deep they are?
Thanks,
Dusty

When your wires cross don't forget to look up, they will cross if lines are above ground.

 

[UncleTom]

I learned to play with dowsing in me back yard. It works. I found everything i know that is burried. I even had my brother try to trick me at his acreage to find things and i found everything there was to find. It goes by earth disturbance. Where ever the earth has been dug once appon a time to my knowledge. All i know is it works. I even made a pair of wires with quarter inch copper tubing as a bearing so no one can accuse you of controlling the wires. I am amassed at the power and pull it has on the wires. It is almost spooky. But depth isnt something it can do,.

 

[Dusty MI]

I learned to play with dowsing in me back yard. It works. I found everything i know that is burried. I even had my brother try to trick me at his acreage to find things and i found everything there was to find. It goes by earth disturbance. Where ever the earth has been dug once appon a time to my knowledge. All i know is it works. I even made a pair of wires with quarter inch copper tubing as a bearing so no one can accuse you of controlling the wires. I am amassed at the power and pull it has on the wires. It is almost spooky. But depth isnt something it can do,.

I'm 80+ and I don't remember when/how I learned to do dowsing.
Dusty

 

[[email protected]]

I bought a utility locator (Verifier G3). Every field tile I have replaced on my farm has a tracer wire along its side. The farm has been in the family over 100 years and this should help the generations to come if there is ever a problem. My locator tells me exactly where the tracer wire is located as well as its depth.

 

[cjunrau]

It does not work for eveyone all the time. i did it once and I knew there was a water line under somewhere going to the barn and an overhead wire was easy to see. I grabbed the wires and went for a walk, amazing feeling when I could not hold them tight in my hands. 2 -3 days later I was going to show my brother, not a chance, nothing,. I was so disappointed I tried for days after that and it never worked again. I tried new wire, old wire, I even used a square to make sure they were 90 degrees. ABSULUTLY NOTHING.
I can not say why it works or why it don't.

 

[buickanddeere]

Dousing is too close to witchcraft, sorcery, ouija boards and occult for my likings .

 

[UncleTom]

Right where the wires cross is right where the earth disturbance or located burial is. X marks the spot. You all should try it. It is powerful.

 

[miangus]

I spent ten years managing the Natural Gas Safety program for Michigan, I noticed using a backhoe was a popular method for locating the underground natural gas facilities.

 

[trackrat]

I spent ten years managing the Natural Gas Safety program for Michigan, I noticed using a backhoe was a popular method for locating the underground natural gas facilities.

Not popular with me as I was on the backhoe and had to pay for what I cut, Not funny

 

[miangus]

I would get a call asking how deep the line was required to be buried and my standard question was how much did they bill you for the repair. Please make the call to the One Call.

 

[MeanGene1]

I once had to cut a drainage channel in Vacaville, right alongside of Interstate 80. Big open field, about 50 acres- 10 ft deep, 10 ft wide at the bottom, 2 to1 side slopes- 2 631 scrapers and a TD25E- yeehaw! So the office yayhoo comes out the day before I started, and I asked him, did you get this USA'd? He yells at me in no uncertain terms "what do you need a USA for, you're in the middle of a field!" Okee dokie. So the rental scrapers came with a couple rumpots from Angel's Camp that loved to go fast- scraper jockeys are a different breed. About 10AM I see one of them go by, dragging about 30ft of 4" fiber optic line flopping along behind him. Within 15 minutes there are 7 utility trucks out there. Before cell phones, so I had to drive to a pay phone- I asked him, would you like to come out and explain to the dozen utility guys why this didn't need a USA? Worst part was, that line fed all the downtown, banks and such, and had also been hit a month earlier by someone else. He wouldn't even stop to talk to me when he showed up

 

[trackrat]

I once had to cut a drainage channel in Vacaville, right alongside of Interstate 80. Big open field, about 50 acres- 10 ft deep, 10 ft wide at the bottom, 2 to1 side slopes- 2 631 scrapers and a TD25E- yeehaw! So the office yayhoo comes out the day before I started, and I asked him, did you get this USA'd? He yells at me in no uncertain terms "what do you need a USA for, you're in the middle of a field!" Okee dokie. So the rental scrapers came with a couple rumpots from Angel's Camp that loved to go fast- scraper jockeys are a different breed. About 10AM I see one of them go by, dragging about 30ft of 4" fiber optic line flopping along behind him. Within 15 minutes there are 7 utility trucks out there. Before cell phones, so I had to drive to a pay phone- I asked him, would you like to come out and explain to the dozen utility guys why this didn't need a USA? Worst part was, that line fed all the downtown, banks and such, and had also been hit a month earlier by someone else. He wouldn't even stop to talk to me when he showed up

We had a job near dfw airport cutting pads for apartments had locates done, petroleum line along the property line two scrapers two loaders one motor grader working I'm on the blade watching the scrapers work suddenly fluid boils out of one scraper of course its jet fuel 110,000 gallons later fuel 4 foot deep around that tractor, takes 3 weeks before we move anything on that job again pipelines locator missed the pipeline 75 feet, farmer moved the signs to the fence line ,ONE HELL OF A MESS , pipeline out in the field not in fence row

 

[buickanddeere]

We had a job near dfw airport cutting pads for apartments had locates done, petroleum line along the property line two scrapers two loaders one motor grader working I'm on the blade watching the scrapers work suddenly fluid boils out of one scraper of course its jet fuel 110,000 gallons later fuel 4 foot deep around that tractor, takes 3 weeks before we move anything on that job again pipelines locator missed the pipeline 75 feet, farmer moved the signs to the fence line ,ONE HELL OF A MESS , pipeline out in the field not in fence row

What happened to the farmer

 

[trackrat]

What happened to the farmer

Don't really know, the company employee who located the pipeline was the main scapegoat they came after us first, but we took pictures of the locates, that cleared us, but we still lost 3 weeks' time and lawyers' fees to clear us. Thank God it wasn't my company just was an operator at that time

 

[Tony in SD]

I once had to cut a drainage channel in Vacaville, right alongside of Interstate 80. Big open field, about 50 acres- 10 ft deep, 10 ft wide at the bottom, 2 to1 side slopes- 2 631 scrapers and a TD25E- yeehaw! So the office yayhoo comes out the day before I started, and I asked him, did you get this USA'd? He yells at me in no uncertain terms "what do you need a USA for, you're in the middle of a field!" Okee dokie. So the rental scrapers came with a couple rumpots from Angel's Camp that loved to go fast- scraper jockeys are a different breed. About 10AM I see one of them go by, dragging about 30ft of 4" fiber optic line flopping along behind him. Within 15 minutes there are 7 utility trucks out there. Before cell phones, so I had to drive to a pay phone- I asked him, would you like to come out and explain to the dozen utility guys why this didn't need a USA? Worst part was, that line fed all the downtown, banks and such, and had also been hit a month earlier by someone else. He wouldn't even stop to talk to me when he showed up

Back in a former life when I submitted invoices to people who would cut our cables with no locates, I had one guy that told me it was cheaper to pay the bill than to call for the locates. So I started to double the bills to this guy. After about the third doubling, he told me he thought is was too much to pay. I told him "Now you are catching on!"

 

[Dingo3]

Back in a former life when I submitted invoices to people who would cut our cables with no locates, I had one guy that told me it was cheaper to pay the bill than to call for the locates. So I started to double the bills to this guy. After about the third doubling, he told me he thought is was too much to pay. I told him "Now you are catching on!"

Isn’t the 811# free? All the utilities came out within a day or two of calling and no charge what so ever. One time the only company that didn’t show up was the cable guy. I ended up hitting one of his lines and didn’t have to pay for the repair because of the no show.

 

[Tony in SD]

Isn’t the 811# free? All the utilities came out within a day or two of calling and no charge what so ever. One time the only company that didn’t show up was the cable guy. I ended up hitting one of his lines and didn’t have to pay for the repair because of the no show.

Sorry I wasn't very clear. Yes Locates are free. What I meant to say was that the bill to repair of located utilities went up because he thought it was cheaper to pay the bill than to take the time to work around the buried utility.
On a side note; this was when there was no such thing as a "OneCall" much less "811". You had to individually call each utility with buried plant in the area you were to dig.
Another interesting thing about 811. Each state has its own system, so if you call in from a location where 2 or more states intersect, you run a high chance of getting the wrong state when you call from a cell phone.

 

[trackrat]

Sorry I wasn't very clear. Yes Locates are free. What I meant to say was that the bill to repair of located utilities went up because he thought it was cheaper to pay the bill than to take the time to work around the buried utility.
On a side note; this was when there was no such thing as a "OneCall" much less "811". You had to individually call each utility with buried plant in the area you were to dig.
Another interesting thing about 811. Each state has its own system, so if you call in from a location where 2 or more states intersect, you run a high chance of getting the wrong state when you call from a cell phone.

I'll tell you a secrete the last time I called the locate service I had to meet them then, they asked me what was there so they could locate it, I said wait a minute that's why I called you, if I KNEW WHAT WAS HERE WHY WOULD I CALL YOU,

 

[miangus]

Be very careful around gas transmission lines. Equipment operators that hit high pressure gas transmission lines usually do not go home. Had a young fellow plowing in primary electric line, the address for the locate got screwed up and the pipeline operator cleared the location. He unloaded the plow right next to the warning sign near the road., when he hit the transmission line it ruptured and blew a hole in the ground about twice the size of a normal ranch house. He was killed instantly. Please be careful around the gas transmission system, you can hit 60-pound and standard pressure distribution lines all day and it usually is just costly. And yes, I am that busybody who when I see a tracked excavators being unloaded near a transmission who calls the pipeline operator.