Underground Cables

[Stubota86]

Gents

pick up power trace on the scanner and dug out to find these two uninsulated copper cables. Didn’t get blown out the trench so assume they aren’t live. Could they be markers for a cable below? Didn’t come up on the Linesearch before you dig site and the domestic power to the house seems to come in high level off a pole. Few military bases round here, could be related? Smack in the way of where I’m meant to be putting an oil tank!

 

[JD450A]

Gents

pick up power trace on the scanner and dug out to find these two uninsulated copper cables. Didn’t get blown out the trench so assume they aren’t live. Could they be markers for a cable below? Didn’t come up on the Linesearch before you dig site and the domestic power to the house seems to come in high level off a pole. Few military bases round here, could be related? Smack in the way of where I’m meant to be putting an oil tank!

Likely Earthing cables. Any substations nearby?

 

[Stubota86]

Haven’t seen any but could be one close by, will have a look. Would the cat scan have picked up if not live though?

 

[JD450A]

Haven’t seen any but could be one close by, will have a look. Would the cat scan have picked up if not live though?

Potentially, but it's more likely they have been laid in the same trench as the LV supply off the transformer.

 

[Monkeybusiness]

They’ll put earth cables in from a lot of different overhead pole-mounted apparatus - switches, transformers etc.

 

[Stubota86]

Cheers guys really appreciate it

 

[T whiting]

Clip a Genny to them and trace them with the cat scanner if your worried about them or dig them back and push them over

 

[Grahams]

You mean to say ripping out as much as you can and taking it to the local scrap dealer is not the way to go?

 

[JD450A]

You mean to say ripping out as much as you can and taking it to the local scrap dealer is not the way to go?

no comment.

 

[Stubota86]

You mean to say ripping out as much as you can and taking it to the local scrap dealer is not the way to go?

Just remembered I bought that post hole borer, i’ll wind them in like candy floss!

 

[pettsy]

Registered for that linesearch site, how detailed is the info they send you?

 

[GazCro]

Registered for that linesearch site, how detailed is the info they send you?

I looked into that but it seemed to send you round in circles so i just rely on cat genny and intuition mixed with a bit of luck. Got a leccy board lad lives local so worst case can always get a look on his laptop but only any good for leccy obvs.

 

[Lancs Lad]

LinesearchbeforeUdig ? Seems accurate enough.
Ive been using it for few years for sites we have , pretty good for ENWL elec , fast response. For nowt..

 

[V8Druid]

They’ll put earth cables in from a lot of different overhead pole-mounted apparatus - switches, transformers etc.

unusual to have a pair though, I'd have thought ..... pole at our place has about 20 yds of bare copper earth, the size of yer finger, run out deep under the grass (apparently) for the tranny on the pole, so the leccy boys told me, when they changed the pole a while back ... ensures a good grounding. .....I'm pretty sure 11Kv'd find earth ok, if it wanted to

 

[Stubota86]

Registered for that linesearch site, how detailed is the info they send you?

Its ok, only takes a few mins really and I read somewhere once that if you hit something some utilities firms and your insurers will take into account that you’ve done as much as poss to avoid it - that’s one of the main reasons I do it, so I have a paper trail. Once you submit an enquiry normally after a couple of days the gas and electric board will reply with plans like these

 

[Russell]

Line search only send me the gas details but I do get a spam email offering to get me the elec map for a fee. I email sse for the elec map to get it free but they need a few days to reply.

 

[fred]

probably similar we use digdat

Homepage

www.digdat.co.uk

 

[JD450A]

unusual to have a pair though, I'd have thought ..... pole at our place has about 20 yds of bare copper earth, the size of yer finger, run out deep under the grass (apparently) for the tranny on the pole, so the leccy boys told me, when they changed the pole a while back ... ensures a good grounding. .....I'm pretty sure 11Kv'd find earth ok, if it wanted to

All about finding earth safely... without the earthing cable you would light up the ground around the pole with potential....

Sounds daft but draw a radius around a pole of say 10m and just say that is the distance it will take a fault to travel before it dissapates.... the ground has resistance which is normally greater than a animal or person..... so if your stepping along you can create a easier link for the power to travel, and boom you have a flow, and your potentially (see what I did there) dead... as happened at newbury https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...hs-Investigators-remove-cable-racecourse.html

The earth wire drops the power directly into a happier ground with less resistance.... you might have two earths to increase the flow.... like a larger waterpipe.

The flow is what will kill you, not just touching power.... hence why this is possible. By "charging" the helicopter up to 132kv or whatever you remove the flow potential and thus a person can jump out onto a live wire..... The thing to remember is IF they touched the wire themselves before balancing the potential they would be shocked.... Same when the helicopter lands.... it needs to earth before you jump out.

 

[GazCro]

unusual to have a pair though, I'd have thought ..... pole at our place has about 20 yds of bare copper earth, the size of yer finger, run out deep under the grass (apparently) for the tranny on the pole, so the leccy boys told me, when they changed the pole a while back ... ensures a good grounding. .....I'm pretty sure 11Kv'd find earth ok, if it wanted to

You never know what's been there before or if a pole has been moved etc. Couple of jobs I've done where cables don't seem to run where it makes any sense I've seen leccy lads for a look in laptop and you find out it's been altered about 6 times over the years. They often don't remove old dead cables either so that can muddy the water.

 

[Stubota86]

Its ok, only takes a few mins really and I read somewhere once that if you hit something some utilities firms and your insurers will take into account that you’ve done as much as poss to avoid it - that’s one of the main reasons I do it, so I have a paper trail. Once you submit an enquiry normally after a couple of days the gas and electric board will reply with plans like these

gotta love the colour choices mind. I’m looking at a green line on the drawing - dark green is kerb line, light green 11-33kV