Had a CLOSE call today......

[Stanley Steamer]

at work that is....we were planting some large trees at one of the County water treatment plants and one of my crew members hit a 3" natural gas line with the backhoe...I was trying to keep an eye on the progress of the digging when it happened....I was able to immediately get to the tractor to cut it off and had the other 5-6 guys remove themselves from the area(post haste) until I could get with site manager and get the gas cut off....we gave it some time to dissipate, then uncovered it since some of the soil had fallen back over the pipe which was in the very corner of the hole..

My boss and the site manager had gone around placing flags where the trees were to go while checking the site plans....problem is, I'm not sure that the "As-builts" are as accurate as they should be.....the gas line was on OUR side of the meter, but I think the gas company was going to come and repair the pipe....we had a lot of other trees to plant elsewhere on the grounds....

[John Schmidt]

A long time friend I worked with for over 25 years moved to that area after retirement...think it might be rural east of Athens. Name is Don Craft, could you check the phone book for a listing in the area? We've lost contact over the years since retirement and I'd sure like to get back in touch.

[Stanley Steamer]

there's a listing for a Donald Craft....115 Westwood Avenue, Bogart, GA....(770)725-5129......Didn't see any other Don Crafts in any of the other little towns around here..

[Bob E.]

As a highway/structural engineer, I deal with the utility companies all the time and it is amazing how uninformed they are as to where their facilities are located.  But give a guy a backhoe and he'll find it just about every time.  Then, if they are in the way, just try to get them out there to relocate them any time soon.  I had one developer client that actually got out his checkbook in front of the utility representative and told the contractor to just start digging and make the utility relocation turn into an emergency repair...just to keep his project on schedule.    We started seeing some action from the utility company then.

[Chrisj CMA]

Was expection to hear a near miss with a cage..........good thing no one blew up Stanely!

I had a near miss two days ago on the Valkyrie and its amazing how small things they teach you in M/C courses jumps right back into your mind.

I was traveling south in the right hand lane of a 4 laner in town.

A little tiney oriental woman ON A CELL PHONE was setting up to turn left from the northbound side she would have turned right into me, almost no where to go if she continued.  In a split second I realized that because of all the angles she really was viewing me at almost a head on veiw so I could hear the instructor' s voice even after all these years......change speed, direction, therefore change the outcome.

So I slowed and turned to the right even though I was headed for the curb.  By doing that I presented the side of my bike to her and all of a sudden I think she saw me because she slammed on brakes and I think her cell phone flew because after she stopped I saw her hunting something..........

All I had to do then was to swerve back into the lane and continue on.  Had I not been expecting her to mess with me, or not changed my course and speed.....who knows, probably pretty bad   

[stormrider]

That's my motto bout ridin, "ride often, ride safe, ride like everbody is trying to kill ya"

Glad there was no ignition source Stan.

[Varmintmist]

Stan never follow a plan, because the contractor never does because the architect can make anything work on paper. http://www.gaupc.com/ Give that to your boss. I am pretty sure that its is free even after the meter.

Link to Darwin in action pics
http://randompicturesblog.com/2008/12/18/post-hole-digger-hits-a-cross-country-gas-pipe-line/

Bigger pipe than you hit, but you get the idea.
.............................................

Bob, FYI.

Give that guy One Calls number. http://www.pa1call.org/POCS/index16.aspx There is no map of where buried facilities are located and there will never be one. There are locators. Utility companys dont locate and havent for at least 10 years since One Call was established. They locate it and you hand dig +- 3 feet of the mark or pay us to fix it. If One Call misses by more than that, we bill them. He cuts on a consistant basis there will be lawyers involved. Not to mention that when he does he cuts off the ability for people to call 911. The state WILL go after him for that if someone gets dead because they cant call 911 because of his actions, BTDT.  They move heaven and earth to find out who is responsable.

He cuts the cable we are happy to bill him. If its a fiber the Feds will find him also. Last contractor that dug w/o a one call that I was involved with put a tooth through a 1200 pair steel jacketed paper insulated pressurized cable. By the time we were done, he could have bought a pretty nice mid to large sized JD excavator in cash. A manhole had to be built, ducktwork reconstructed, a few hundred man hours @ a loaded labor rate of +100/hr, and the bosses add their time in, materials down to the emery cloth used to rough up the sheath, and dont forget the fines, road repair ect ect ect....

[John Schmidt]

there's a listing for a Donald Craft....115 Westwood Avenue, Bogart, GA....(770)725-5129......Didn't see any other Don Crafts in any of the other little towns around here..

That sounds about right for location, I'll have to give him a call to be sure. Thanks for the help.

[Bob E.]

Bob, FYI.

Give that guy One Calls number. http://www.pa1call.org/POCS/index16.aspx There is no map of where buried facilities are located and there will never be one. There are locators. Utility companys dont locate and havent for at least 10 years since One Call was established. They locate it and you hand dig +- 3 feet of the mark or pay us to fix it. If One Call misses by more than that, we bill them. He cuts on a consistant basis there will be lawyers involved. Not to mention that when he does he cuts off the ability for people to call 911. The state WILL go after him for that if someone gets dead because they cant call 911 because of his actions, BTDT.  They move heaven and earth to find out who is responsable.

He cuts the cable we are happy to bill him. If its a fiber the Feds will find him also. Last contractor that dug w/o a one call that I was involved with put a tooth through a 1200 pair steel jacketed paper insulated pressurized cable. By the time we were done, he could have bought a pretty nice mid to large sized JD excavator in cash. A manhole had to be built, ducktwork reconstructed, a few hundred man hours @ a loaded labor rate of +100/hr, and the bosses add their time in, materials down to the emery cloth used to rough up the sheath, and dont forget the fines, road repair ect ect ect....

My client was joking...sort of...lol.  And even if he wasn't, the contractor wasn't about to just go busting pipes with a hoe.  He was just frustrated because even though the utility (water in this case) had known of the project for 2 years with final construction drawings provided as recently as 6 months prior to breaking ground...surely enough time to design, plan, and perform his relocation...he had failed to do so.  Then when we went to construction, the utility rep basically said it wasn't his problem and we'd just have to wait for him.  His point was that if they went and busted the pipe, the water company would have someone out there NOW to move it.

One-calls were done both during design and construction.  We routinely get maps from utility companies with their lines marked where they are supposed to be...then we design something around them only to find that their facility (pipe, cable, etc.) was nowhere near where the map said it was.  Also, sometimes the maps are outdated and we find out later that the utility was moved on a previous project...and just not documented properly on their mapping.