LESSONS FROM THE FIELD
ment. So we start to dig, and there's a pipe. We have to stop and call the gas company, and they have to make sure they did locate the active one. It's the same with the phone companies. You get a backhoe full of pretty colored wires, so you call them and make sure it's a dead cable. If you find a gas main, you can go below it. For phone lines, you just cut off what you chewed up and try to shoot boards below that. You have to make those adjustments in depth at that time. "Gas lines, water lines, phone lines, power lines – in the older section of
Worker operating a directional boring rig
town, there are a lot of dead, unused utilities. Half the people don't remem- ber they were there. It stops you, and you lose a couple or three hours of work- ing time waiting for someone to tell you
Contractors doing directional boring near the University of Illinois campus
they're dead cables. You can't go on till you make sure it's clear. "In the past, we have tried to put fi-
ber through old pipes, but then you find there's a shutoff valve in the middle of the intersection, so you end up having to dig up the street. We try not to do that. You spend more money trying to use that casing. In larger cities, if you can find an open pipe that goes for a block or two through a heavily trafficked area,
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Kirk Kelso of subcontractor Power Up prepares to do an installation at a customer premises.