Re: MCI WorldCom fiber cut - [belated]
Unnamed Administration sources reported that Daniel Senie said:
When gas installers lay underground plastic gas lines (I have such running to my backup generator) they lay a wire in the ground next to the pipe.
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The next thing done when an underground gas pipe is laid, is a mylar film is buried, a foot or so above the pipe, which has all kinds of warnings on it about the gas line below. The tape is mirror-reflective mylar.
A) I've never seen fiber without wire for the locaters to use later. B) Fiber duct is often punched through with a ram, not buried by cut & cover methods; it being far cheaper to ram. But b1) that means there is no way to leave "buried trouble below" tape and b2) the NEXT guy will likely be ramming as well so even if there was tape, no one would see it. Note the ram is a source of many problems. The protypical is the cas company uses one to install a new plastic line to a house, inadventently going clean through a 6" sewer line. Trees soon clog the sewer with roots, and a sewer company roto-rooters [tm] the line clear, flooding the sewer system and basement with gas. Kaboom. -- A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433
David Lesher wrote:
A) I've never seen fiber without wire for the locaters to use later.
I've only had the opportunity to watch 5 runs pulled so far: MCI pulled a 4" in AA 2 years ago, the city pulled 3 2" together last year, Ameritech pulled 24 a few weeks ago (I didn't know _that_ could be done), and Edison pulled 9 big ones in two pulls for electric, all under the Huron River near my location. None of them pulled a wire with the duct. But MichCon pulled a new (yellow) gas line together with a (yellow) wire outside it. Now, it could be that the resulting fiber cable was "clad" in metal, or something. But, the Edison folks hit the MCI duct anyway.... looked to me like they had to dig 30 feet or so down to it, as it was coming up from under the Huron River. One of the reasons there were problems with MCI is that despite detailed routing plans (that I had the opportunity to see), the contractor was often 15 to 20 feet off the original marked path going under creeks and around hills, and didn't mark the "as builts" on the plans. I don't know whether Ameritech et alia made the same kind of mistakes, as they wouldn't let me see the plans, and didn't file them with the city, except where they were in public right of way. They claim their duct locations are "proprietary". Plays havoc with city planning.
B) Fiber duct is often punched through with a ram, not buried by cut & cover methods; it being far cheaper to ram. But b1) that means there is no way to leave "buried trouble below" tape and b2) the NEXT guy will likely be ramming as well so even if there was tape, no one would see it.
Yes, they used directional drilling even where I thought they could just do a cut and cover. Apparently the cost has been driven lower than the traditional cleanup costs of cut and cover. WSimpson@UMich.edu Key fingerprint = 17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26 DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32
participants (2)
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David Lesher -
William Allen Simpson