i was working for a company putting in a water line, since i was only 19 i ran the manuel shovel, wer were going through somebodys front yard when the excavator operator stopped digging, had his bucket of dirt about two feet off the ground not even out of the trench, he said theres something there,so we jumped down and started digging around his bucket sure enough he had the cable tv wire stretched around 2 or three of his teth on the bucket,i always wondered if he felt it or some how through all the dirt did he see it first?
It's amazing sometimes the things operators can do. I've done the same thing with digging up lines in the bucket and somehow seeing them before the broke, but I've had my fare share of ripping them apart too. If you sit in the seat for a long time you can just tell the slightest feelings when something is wrong.
Sometimes you can see dirt start to move on the side of the trench as the wire starts to get stretched and pulls at the dirt on the sides. This most often occurs in softer dirt like in the yard under grass where the soil is soft. If the dirt is too hard, the wire usually breaks before any dirt moves that you can notice. It isn't likely you would "feel" a cable like that, so whatever triggered him to stop must have been visual. When digging in a front yard, you know that there are underground utilities running up to the yard from the street, so you usually are looking for anything abnormal. Experience tells you what is abnormal.
if you are on a scraper, you can tell if you hook something large sometimes, but not always! Don't ask me how I know this.....I didn't feel that fibre optic phone line, for instance.....
The best situation is when you have a very experienced mainline digger and he is on the same machine all the time. Operators can get so familure with their machines they can tell when the slightest thing changes (like a slightly hight amount of resistance on the bucket and such. I rank underground trench operators right up there with grader operators when it comes to how valuable a good one is to a company. :drinkup
Maybe... Maybe not... I have never thought of or considered myself to be good. But there have been many different different jobs for just as many different customers through out the years where I thought to myself as being real lucky. Sometimes. it's a feeling i'll get in my gut that makes me focus in on the way the bucket reacts to my commands. Or noticing a slight difference in the walls of the trench. Operators seldom look outside their immediate work area. I might notice a valve can across the street, a meter box, concrete vault, utility pole, fire hydrant or something that could line up with or tie into something on the other side of a street or lot. I'll find myself somehow being able to tune out everything other than the way the excavator sounds, how the bucket moves on the stick and how the bucket moves thru the dirt. Then, as you witnessed, I'll back out of it and tell someone that there IS something there. I felt it. I'd say that 75% of the time I was right. Either the locater was off or the utility was not marked. We just dig a little by hand and "Bingo" there it is. Honestly.... I don't know how I can see or feel an unmarked utility with a 245? Lots of luck? Being able to focus? Maybe a little of both...
I'm usually the same type too, I can see the trench that was dug crossing where I am digging, if I'm lucky, it was my Dad who dug there 10 years ago and I know how deep he liked to dig back then (so deep, God can't find it) so I usually send the property owner down there, cable TV and phone lines here are buried in conduit piping and electrical are actually easier and more forgiving over the 220 volt range, but water and gas lines are not.
Experience counts "Operators seldom look outside their immediate work area. I might notice a valve can across the street, a meter box, concrete vault, utility pole, fire hydrant or something that could line up with or tie into something on the other side of a street or lot." ROP,I feel this stems from starting out at the bottom and working your way up.When you start out as a pipe laborer at the tail then move to top then make leadman you gain very valuable knowledge about how things are done and laid out.This all comes from time both in the trenches and the seat.We have had production dirt hoe operators who boast that pipe is easy and boring,but put them in an above mentioned situation and sit back and watch.I personally find pipe work to be relaxing and fun.The bigger the challenge the bigger the reward !:scool Nice pics you posted.Looks like a hairy situation w/ the existing curbline and utilities.Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.Have a good New Year:drinkup
And lets not forget about the operators that are good enough to tear something out and never know it... till the homeowner comes and ask if the work we are doing might have caused his phone to go out.
Yeah or that wierd looking puddle of water in the lawn 2 weeks after the job was done.
ROP... Im sure OSHA would love to get ahold of the 'competent person' who allowed those trenches to be entered with those boxes as they currently are. Ive noticed that a lot of the time it has been come down to a gut instinct that ive gotten when Ive either gone through a line (thank god only twice, and only electrical to pumping units) or have wires snagged on a tooth. Its a little bit of both. Instinct and experience.
Do the best with what you got Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.As long as you make and do the best with what you have to work with and around usually things go OK.The biggest thing is getting complacent and taking things for granted. We actually received company memo's about taking pictures and posting them on the Internet due to the liabilty factor.Once those pictures are in the public domain they can be used if an OSHA complaint is in place prior to the date [if stamped] of the picture.This has happened to a sub of ours coming behind us doing slide rail removal on a Sanitary line.The pictures were taken and put on the Company's web page after a disgruntled homeowner ,who was denied lateral service access to the main, called OSHA about an "unsafe situation".Without going into the details, two willfull violations concerning ladders and pumps were noted from the pictures and fines issued.Upon appeal,the fines were reduced.