3 phase cable

[MF-ANDY]

How deep should it be buried?

 

[mo!]

Electric company said theirs should be 1m below surface.

 

[upnortheast]

Not sure of the rules about depth but be sure to put a warning tape above the cable in the trench

 

[MF-ANDY]

A fencing contractor working at mine today hit one. Only 18" down and no tape

 

[Lincs Lass]

Ive exposed domestic main cables at 12inches,,bit scary when its right where I want to put a fence post

 

[MF-ANDY]

Ive exposed domestic main cables at 12inches,,bit scary when its right where I want to put a fence post

This one apparently fed a unit in a yard behind my property. It had previously been capped their end but was still live. It has now been cut and capped before my property.

 

[Lincs Lass]

This one apparently fed a unit in a yard behind my property. It had previously been capped their end but was still live. It has now been cut and capped before my property.

Atleast they only hit it ,,gang of civils were doing some work at a factory in town few years ago ,,everything was exposed carefully and on a site plan ,,they were installing a bigger transformer so leccy board came and cat scanned everything ,,,one cable didnt register so sparks man said it was dead ,,,lad set about it with the stihl saw ,that was the last thing he did ,,big bang ,he ended up 20yrds away ,the saw was melted and he had his arm blown clean of ,,,H&S shut the job down ,,

 

[simon-0116]

700mm or 1000mm if agricultural land.
Think 600mm if in a duct.

 

[FIL46]

Done a fair bit of contracting and this is what I do
Yards and sites water at 800 mm deep sand and taped , electric 600mm deep sand and tape , water in field 1200mm taped , electric 1000mm

 

[MF-ANDY]

Am i right in thinking those cable finder things the contractors use can only detect cables with current flowing through them?

 

[Lincs Lass]

Thats the idea of them or they clip a signal genny on to generate a reading

 

[MF-ANDY]

Thats the idea of them or they clip a signal genny on to generate a reading

So if the cable was cut and capped so no current was flowing even though it was live the machine couldn't detect it?

 

[Lincs Lass]

I think it has to be a continouse current for a cat to detect it ,,a loop circuit, if it cut the loop is broken,might be wrong but that's my belief how it works

 

[tomlad]

I think
Think cat at genny , if gennied it would show the gennied signal, its then scanning for that signal, i think .
If i need owt doing ive a utility man i ask .
Geny thing amazes me every time, very good. But won't find ffin water.

 

[Robert K]

Why wasn't it in a duct

 

[MF-ANDY]

Why wasn't it in a duct

I guess because some cowboy put it in years ago

 

[MF-ANDY]

I think
Think cat at genny , if gennied it would show the gennied signal, its then scanning for that signal, i think .
If i need owt doing ive a utility man i ask .
Geny thing amazes me every time, very good. But won't find ffin water.

But how would that help you find a cable that nobody knew was there?

 

[Hesston4860s]

Was digging a water pipe in on a site in 2015 and western power chap came out to mark there cables, one was a 3 phase to the barn being converted. He Assured me it was a meter deep as he put it in himself, it was live and it was where he said but it was 8 inches deep in a duct with no sand or tape !.

 

[tomlad]

Not dissing u captain
Some people scan everything before they break ground.
I don't cuz i haven't got one, just summon my m8 if i suspect something.
Fence contractor that put my otter fence up scan everything as one of his lads had a near do with a big cable that was shallow, plans said it was 1500 or what ever , it was 300 . Big bang, man in trench , blown out of trench but walked away. Day for him to buy lottery tickets eh. But boss man of firm sent merlado in trench to hand dig as there's a cable there .
Rebar in slab he was trying to leaver stabbed thru hv some distance away, rebar prob acted as fuse wire and saved him , only description i got on cable was BIG .
As an aside he's lucky ( the fence firm ) the utilities didn't bankrupt the fencing contractor as there gonna blame the little guy ain't they...

 

[Tomtrac]

I think
Think cat at genny , if gennied it would show the gennied signal, its then scanning for that signal, i think .
If i need owt doing ive a utility man i ask .
Geny thing amazes me every time, very good. But won't find ffin water.

What we do is break in to water pipe and push a wire up the water pipe then put geny on wire
Hey presto you can now follow were water pipe is
But best use clean wire if pipe going yo a house lol