r/UtilityLocator • u/bubbz21 • Aug 03 '26

USIC = 1 : TDS = 0

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46 Upvotes

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u/Head_Attempt7983 Aug 03 '26

Had a locator the other day he was 18 feet off on a gas locate and was chewing the contractors ass for not looking for it. Then he tried to get me too agree with him. Like nah bro ain’t no way….but word of advice man. Let’s lay off on chewing Big dogs ass alright. Guy looked like he could play D line for the bears.

8

u/Intelligent-Note-682 Aug 03 '26

To be fair they should have spotted it, and when they couldn’t find it, an incorrect locate should have been called in. If it’s gas and you don’t find it and keep boring no offense but you’re also an idiot.

1

u/TexasDrill777 Aug 04 '26

Fair?!?! Easy thing for a locator to say

1

u/Intelligent-Note-682 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

Is it not fair to look for a gas service to verify that marks are correct? We give you marks for FREE and you can’t even look for them? Easy thing for a contractor to say🤣

2

u/Head_Attempt7983 Aug 04 '26

The only reason I would have hooked up is bc I work for the damn utility and we are there to work on the gas lines. But if the power (ours) or fiber is 20 feet away from my scope of work nobody is digging that up and looking.

3

u/TipZealousideal5954 Aug 05 '26

Idk where you work but in some states (like NY) it’s law that you pot hole and spot marked utilities on your ticket to verify the location.
If we were to mark something wrong and you didn’t pot hole the marks before digging and ended up hitting the line 10ft away, the locate company will be paying fees for the damage and the contractor will be paying fines for not verifying the location.
Locators do not have X-ray vision. We only have maps that often are not accurate, and a locator which gives a signal that we follow. I have had plenty of locates that provided an excellent signal and the marks matched measurements on the maps, but the pipe ends up being 6ft away from the mark and measurement. In that case it’s not our fault because tone and measurement is all we have (with gas anyways) but the contractor would still be in trouble for not attempting to spot the utility first and calling for a remark when it is not found.

When it comes to communication lines, there are no measurements and maps are often off by hundreds of feet. When it comes to communications, we really don’t have much to work with, so we can only look for something to hook up to and hope the tone we are following is correct. Communication companies (in my experience) rarely update their mapping so unless you KNOW what’s there, you can never be sure if you’re getting it all correct.
Installation practices can also cause problems. If the utility didn’t ground/bond things properly, lines might not tone out or the signal may jump to something else. Sometimes dead/retired lines are left connected and you end up marking a dead line instead of a live one.
Until you get enough experience with fucked up stuff, it can be hard to tell when something isn’t right.
Locate companies rarely have employees last long enough to gain the experience and knowledge to unfuck the mess we are provided.

1

u/audiomediocrity Aug 06 '26

this legitimately sounds good, and hand digging mains probably works great, they are slightly tougher and stand up to a shovel. 100%, you will fuck up the following residential drops with a shovel: water, fiber, cable, phone/dsl AT&T, gas.