POW! Lights Out!

[RJay]

The owners of the RV Park where I'm staying are upgrading the electrical distribution system. As I left to buy some groceries this afternoon, I noticed a couple of the roads tore up with trenches running across them. Shortly after I returned and as I was putting the groceries away the power went out. I wasn't too surprised since last week a notice went around saying to expect some outages while the work progressed. Well after I got the generator going and finished putting the groceries away I walked down to the trench where the workers were to find out how long the power would be out. It turns out that one of the workmen was cutting thru a 4” PVC pipe with a sawsall that he thought was a sewer line but tuned out to be an electrical conduit. The man was shaken up but not seriously hurt and taken to the hospital as a precaution.


I hope when he leaves the hospital he goes straight to the store to buy a lottery ticket.

[RickO]

Originally Posted by RJay

. It turns out that one of the workmen was cutting thru a 4” PVC pipe with a sawsall that he thought was a sewer line but tuned out to be an electrical conduit. The man was shaken up but not seriously hurt and taken to the hospital as a precaution.


I hope when he leaves the hospital he goes straight to the store to buy a lottery ticket.

Holy smokes! That is one lucky dude.

Rick

[hondo122]

This is why you do as built drawings when you build. so you know where everything is, no guessing.

[Wayne M]

Some of those old RV parks have no drawings. They were made into RV parks before all the codes were set.

[ga traveler]

Be careful while this is going on. The last time Ga. power worked on our street, they shorted out the main lines and burned up three customer motorhomes, that we had plugged in. There was about a hundred MH's on the lot, but only three plugged in. If you have any problems, make sure you report it right away.

[Elkhartjim]

...and he didn't know the difference in a conduit and a sewer line? Cutting into either is not exactly smart either.

Somehow I don't think "location as builts" would have made any difference in using a sawzall...heck he thought he was cutting a sewer line.

RJay is spot on, he should go buy a lottery ticket.

[D&J]

Originally Posted by Elkhartjim

...and he didn't know the difference in a conduit and a sewer line? Cutting into either is not exactly smart either.

Somehow I don't think "location as builts" would have made any difference in using a sawzall...heck he thought he was cutting a sewer line.

RJay is spot on, he should go buy a lottery ticket.

Been around a lot of old parks and old underground wiring in general and I can tell you there is a lot of wires run in white sewer pipe but I would never cut any pipe without finding out what was in it.

Denny

[RJay]

Usually the procedure whenever there's to be digging is to call Dig Safe but in this case these are private facilities on private property which Dig Safe doesn't handle. I haven't been able to talk with anyone about the details so I can't comment on the question of as built drawings.

[Ray,IN]

It doesn't matter, dig-safe/holey moley, or whatever it is called, has a computerized device that can locate buried electrical lines. I wonder if it was a work-camper or professional electrician? There are protocols that should be followed. Remember the slogan, "Safety is job one".

[Elkhartjim]

Originally Posted by RJay

Usually the procedure whenever there's to be digging is to call Dig Safe but in this case these are private facilities on private property which Dig Safe doesn't handle. I haven't been able to talk with anyone about the details so I can't comment on the question of as built drawings.

RJay, FYI. We have rural acreage (in Texas) and I'm legally required to call Dig Tess before punching a hole in the ground any place on this property-yes, my owned personal private property. Its the law. We have a 30" 900lb natural gas line that crosses our land and I sure don't want to drive a "T" post into that. I have to give them 48 hours notice prior to any digging and if I dig prior to that and cut a line its my responsibility to repair it and to pay for any damages it may cause-even if its in my front yard.

See this site for information pertaining to Texas.

Safe Excavation Begins With You!

[bldrbob]

Fortunately most new power tools are made with genuine plastic instead of long lasting metal.Don't last but protect you from shocks .

[HD4Mark]

I did locating for buried telephone for a short while. Some utilities will not located private service such as campgrounds and even from the transformer to your home. I could never figure it out. We were not required to locate the service wire from the terminal to the home but I always did. I figured that I was already there anyway and the time to mark it was way less than to repair it after it was cut. Our stuff is not even dangerous when cut. One difference is that many utilities contract out locators and from what I saw they are rushed and overworked to cut the price so they only do what is necessary and move on.

Fortunately now days there is usually a plastic tape buried above the electric, communications or whatever that states what it is so no guessing.

BTW I never located in a CG but can say that trailer parks were one of the biggest PITA to locate.

[RJay]

It's my understanding that when Dig Safe is called they contact all utilities, federal, state, local to determine if they have facilities that cross the property in question. If there is, that governing body or utility contacts Dig Safe so they can mark out the facilities on the property. Since there's no public records of private property facilities they are not marked. I assume the reason Dig Safe doesn't mark homeowner's facilities is because any damage(costs and outages) the homeowner sustains to his facilities only impacts the homeowner. In this case Dig Safe is somewhat a non-issue since the facilities were already located in the trench its just the worker cut into the wrong conduit.

[JimM68]

Here in Illinois, we call "JULIE" and she comes out and locates everything, right up to the house.