Hi, I need to dig a trench for my electrician to run an electrical conduit about 100 yards from the pole at the road to my pole barn site-- I am not a professional equipment operator, but ran a PC 150 ditching this past winter for drying out a farm field-- so i feel pretty comfortable with excavators, and plan to rent one with about a 12 inch bucket. The trench for the conduit goes under a creek that dries up almost completely during the summer. Except for the creek that is about half way along, the run is pretty straight and gentle grade, and not too many rocks. Can i just dig a 24 inch trench, then taper it down to about 3-4 feet under the creek, then slope it back up on the other side and bury the conduit in it under water? The soil is hard clay, and the water flow will be really slow when i dig this, so I think (hope) the banks of the trench across the stream won't collapse that quickly. Is this a crazy idea? How is it usually done. I've only done "farm ditching" with the other excavator. Do you pros think another machine would be better? Thanks in advance, Bob
I would dig it 36"-42" deep all the way across. Going only 24" deep plus the conduit being 3-4" in diameter means the top of the pipe is only 20" deep. Deeper is better within reason, especially if your on a farm. I would backfill about a foot over the conduit and put some bury tape over the line. I would wait as long as possible to dig across the creek, but I would not worry about the water. There may be some issue with DEQ type restrictions on digging in the creek and silting it up. I would leave it up to you as to whether that is an issue or not. We run twine through the conduit to aid in pulling the wire through. If you are running more than one conduit there maybe a code on the separation distance between the conduits, if this is the case make sure you have a wide enough bucket to allow for this separation distance. Any mini ex or backhoe is capable of this dig. The worst part will be buying the conduit. Here electrical conduit is expensive. Sometimes we can bed the trench in sand. This saves us from using conduit.
Take a look at this thread. I went through 2 small creeks and still have one to go.
KSSS, Thanks for your advice! gotta go right now to meet an electrician who will help me with the hookup-- but he says he doesn't like trenching-- I'll also call the town coding guy about permits across this small creek. I already had somebody downstream (don't know who) complaining about "mud in th water" when I was ditching in Dec-Feb). Bob
OldandWorn: can't believe how complicated your project has been!! I'll eventually read all of it and may bounce some questions off you as well as the rest of the pros on this forum-- if that's OK. Congrats on your job. Bob
A pc150 is a little big for just a trench- just thinking of the rental rate. A pc27 would be plenty and if you're in a hurry, a pc50.
Thanks! The one thing that I would like to mention is to dig deeper than you think you need if you are working with muddy water in the trench as you can't see what the bottom looks like. I lost a foot of depth to gravel and muck.