What does this utility symbol mean?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

O4L

Sharpshooter
Staff Member
Special Hen Moderator Moderator
Joined
Aug 13, 2012
Messages
14,505
Reaction score
18,554
Location
Shawnee
I think that seemed like a crummy job and always felt sorry for those guys.

The details might be a little off but many years ago I saw an army of COX reps try to argue with a backhoe operator over a half an inch. They were hand digging each side of the broken cable and pulling a string between where it was broken. It fed all or part of ORUs TV signal going out to the world and was costing tons of money being down.
Well that half inch one way or another can mean lots of money.

I can say that in the time I was doing the job that I didn't cost the company one thin dime because of a mismarked line but it sure was stressful.

High voltage electric and high pressure gas lines could be a little extra nerve racking.
 

dlbleak

Sharpshooter
Staff Member
Supporting Member
Special Hen Administrator Moderator Supporter
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
21,039
Reaction score
25,099
Location
edmond
I’m a little concerned because we have been in the new house since February 23rd and I come home to this crap. My house is the only one that has been flagged and marked on the whole block. They better not dig up my friggin yard without some detailed explanations. If it’s a problem on their end, I have half a mind to tell them tough crap. I don’t car if you have to dig down the middle of they street but you aren’t touching my yard. We’ve already done some landscaping and plants.
8ED0E288-C652-4858-873F-EF81CEF36377.jpeg
8ED0E288-C652-4858-873F-EF81CEF36377.jpeg
47593BE5-EA8C-4CF0-91EE-C77B813AB919.jpeg
47593BE5-EA8C-4CF0-91EE-C77B813AB919.jpeg
536F7725-FE86-4597-B3A1-B7FA8D98CB66.jpeg
 

Mos Eisley

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
2,912
Reaction score
784
Location
Kansas City, MO
You'd be amazed, if you didn't check, how much of your yard isn't really yours. I see pedestals. Those are definitely inside of easements. Not sure of the legal stuff where you live but all they usually do is notify you, and make a lame effort to restore where they dug. You can't stop them. Besides, they'll probably just bore. I have a 3' square in my yard right now where they have dug for a bore.
 

dlbleak

Sharpshooter
Staff Member
Supporting Member
Special Hen Administrator Moderator Supporter
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
21,039
Reaction score
25,099
Location
edmond
You'd be amazed, if you didn't check, how much of your yard isn't really yours. I see pedestals. Those are definitely inside of easements. Not sure of the legal stuff where you live but all they usually do is notify you, and make a lame effort to restore where they dug. You can't stop them. Besides, they'll probably just bore. I have a 3' square in my yard right now where they have dug for a bore.
You’re probably right. That bigger pedestal is just inside or on the easement line I bet.
 

cdschoonie

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Dec 3, 2017
Messages
1,286
Reaction score
1,093
Location
Kingfisher, OK
In the early days of IT, it used to be common to have services that were used by unknown users, and one tried and true (albeit not entirely customer-friendly) method to find out who they were was to either let it fail or turn it off to see who screamed. A former colleague called this the "fiber-seeking backhoe method," because we used to see a lot of inattentive backhoe operators who were really good at finding the buried fiber.

I'm pretty one of them built the private road just across my south property line--he managed to cut my phone line four times in two weeks. One time it was so bad that the AT$T lineman couldn't even locate the cut end of the line and had to pull a new one, and one time the idiot stabbed his real estate sign through the new line before they'd even had a chance to bury it. I very seriously considered "borrowing" some parts from his dozer until he figured out how to freaking call 811.
I ran a backhoe for years, when I bought undeveloped land once I rented one to dig my own water and gas line ditches. I marked everywhere I would dig, called ‘One Call’ which later changed to 811, had to wait 48 hours, once everyone had marked their respective lines, I got to it. In the 3rd bucket, I pulled up 2 ends of a fiber optic…oops. It was the line for a half mile of residents. As it turned out, the guy marking the line marked their line, which would’ve shown me it was there. Problem was he marked it over 150’ east of where I marked my dig. He was a contract surveyor, and after visiting with the phone guy while he repaired it, he told me this had been that company’s 3rd marking screw up. He said this was their last and most expensive screw up made lol.
 

Perplexed

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Apr 7, 2009
Messages
15,759
Reaction score
10,583
Location
Tulsa
This reminds me of the last time I asked for the utility lines on my property to be marked as I had a project that would have involved digging. The guy who came out to mark the natural gas line started at the gas meter near the street, but he claimed he couldn’t find any line leading out from the meter. He marked the meter “inactive“ and left. Before and since, the meter has been chugging along just fine…
 

O4L

Sharpshooter
Staff Member
Special Hen Moderator Moderator
Joined
Aug 13, 2012
Messages
14,505
Reaction score
18,554
Location
Shawnee
I’m a little concerned because we have been in the new house since February 23rd and I come home to this crap. My house is the only one that has been flagged and marked on the whole block. They better not dig up my friggin yard without some detailed explanations. If it’s a problem on their end, I have half a mind to tell them tough crap. I don’t car if you have to dig down the middle of they street but you aren’t touching my yard. We’ve already done some landscaping and plants.
View attachment 213641View attachment 213641View attachment 213643View attachment 213643View attachment 213642
If you are having anything done to your property that would require poking a hole in the ground or any digging at all the contractor most likely called in a locate.
 

O4L

Sharpshooter
Staff Member
Special Hen Moderator Moderator
Joined
Aug 13, 2012
Messages
14,505
Reaction score
18,554
Location
Shawnee
This reminds me of the last time I asked for the utility lines on my property to be marked as I had a project that would have involved digging. The guy who came out to mark the natural gas line started at the gas meter near the street, but he claimed he couldn’t find any line leading out from the meter. He marked the meter “inactive“ and left. Before and since, the meter has been chugging along just fine…
I could tell all kinds of stories about difficult locates but gas lines can be some of the worst because plastic gas lines don't put off a signal. A locating wire has to be ran along with gas line and it has to be accessible at the meter to connect to.
 

O4L

Sharpshooter
Staff Member
Special Hen Moderator Moderator
Joined
Aug 13, 2012
Messages
14,505
Reaction score
18,554
Location
Shawnee
I ran a backhoe for years, when I bought undeveloped land once I rented one to dig my own water and gas line ditches. I marked everywhere I would dig, called ‘One Call’ which later changed to 811, had to wait 48 hours, once everyone had marked their respective lines, I got to it. In the 3rd bucket, I pulled up 2 ends of a fiber optic…oops. It was the line for a half mile of residents. As it turned out, the guy marking the line marked their line, which would’ve shown me it was there. Problem was he marked it over 150’ east of where I marked my dig. He was a contract surveyor, and after visiting with the phone guy while he repaired it, he told me this had been that company’s 3rd marking screw up. He said this was their last and most expensive screw up made lol.
I once had a cable TV fiber optic cut on one of my very difficult PIA locates in McLoud where they were putting in a new housing addition across from the high school.

The utility companies provide maps of their utilities to the contract locating companies so that you have some idea where to start looking. The fiber optic that got cut was a block or two to the east according to their map and I had no other way of knowing where it was. I was not at fault and the cable company had to eat that one.

When I left the company six months or so later, the maps had still not been updated to correct the mistake.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom