Get Digging! đź•ł

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-safe-digging-month-april/

Everyone Get Digging!! (safely, that is.)

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My employer considers every day safe digging day. Yet, still people dig unsafely, right into our stuff. Like the article suggests call 811 before you dig. Especially if you have gas service.

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I am just glad someone decided to devote a whole month to it!

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I dig every day it seems like. I can never seem to find the way out. Wait that is a different digging.

On a serious note even when they locate it try to “locate” they tell you it’s kinda over here somewhere. (Neighbor does fiber, he has to deal with the aftermath) Its up to the people digging to soft dig. Or carefully dig with shovels.

One of my customers a few years ago was going expansion. The contractor doing the fence was told to soft dig in a specific location because the water line was laid there not long before. Well wouldn’t you know it, they hit it with the drill rig. Right smack dab in the middle. The Bank was not happy about that.

Another customer, another data center, was expanding. During that expansion the pier drilling folks hit several water lines. That data center said if it happened again they were out. Wanna guess what happened again?

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Best way to find the fiber cut is to look for the backhoe.

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Did a retaining wall almost 10 years ago and managed to cut both cable and phone drops in the process. Calling them “buried” would be generous since I hit both on the first serious bite with the posthole digger. Good thing I don’t use cable and the phone drop was retired-in-place along with the pedestal in my back yard when fiber was deployed ~3 years before I moved in.

Going to need to get some locates in the near future before I start doing the ~dozen postholes that the shed demands, outdoor path lighting, and a sprinkler system. Shed shouldn’t be an issue, but I only know where the water main is in the front yard.

Just FYI, the dial-before-you-dig system does not extend into private property. It stops in the rights-of-way.

If I can get a vector from the curb through the edge of the utility easement my side of the sidewalk that should suffice.

The City can mark where your water service line and sewer line are. Atmos will locate your gas line (generally, from the meter to a spot on the nearest wall of your house). Oncor can mark theirs if its underground. Irrigation lines, up to you and your divining rod/logic.