Who pays if fibre installer cuts a water pipe?

[supersunbird]

I just don't understand why there isn't a standard depth logic applied to these things.

As in....

Water : 2m deep.

Power : 2.5m deep.

Fiber : 1.5m deep.

It really shouldn't be that hard.

Cause the land isn't flat, while the infrastructure mostly is.

 

[flamevector]

Cause the land isn't flat, while the infrastructure mostly is.

you just triggered the flat earth society lol XD

 

[WaxLyrical]

I just don't understand why there isn't a standard depth logic applied to these things.

As in....

Water : 2m deep.

Power : 2.5m deep.

Fiber : 1.5m deep.

It really shouldn't be that hard.

Eish is hard mfetu.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Cause the land isn't flat, while the infrastructure mostly is.

Then use sea level as a guidance.

It's still not difficult to have different pipes at different depths so this kak never happens.

 

[supersunbird]

Then use sea level as a guidance.

It's still not difficult to have different pipes at different depths so this kak never happens.

So it needs to go up and down with every single contour of the land instead of being level or sloping down (say sewage) at a steady gradient?

 

[SauRoNZA]

So it needs to go up and down with every single contour of the land instead of being level or sloping down (say sewage) at a steady gradient?

Look I'm no builder and I understand that in an industrial context it's not so simple.

But residential areas and especially where it's perfectly flat or at least level from one property to another which is mostly the case surely a standard can be applied to take the guess work out of it.

Newer areas like my own these things are a perfect grid. Find my water meter and the main line pipe runs exactly square to the road and I bet that will be the case for every single house down the street at exactly the same depth.

It can't be too hard to work with that, so the people hitting pipes must be incompetent.

(That being said they've trenched fibre here in other areas of the neighbourhood and I haven't seen any pipe struck)

****

Also electricity detectors are a thing....surely the same exists for water? Or failing that detecting the pipe itself. And that might cost money but surely knowing exactly where a pipe is and avoiding the drama by hitting it will be cheaper in the long run?

 

[CamiKaze]

They stomp grinded a tree stomp near my water pipe. The grinder cut the main inlet and all that water was then diverted into my pool which is 100% full today. I paid jack **** for that.
I'm actually glad.

 

[LOTR]

We had both the sewerage and mains water pipes upgraded in our area recently. Obviously they had to leave the old infrastucture in place whilst they set up the new. Once the new was completed they just switched supply from one to the other, leaving all the old stuff in place. I would bet that not both old and new are listed on the Wayleaves. That must have been the case as Vuma kept hitting water mains that they stated were not on the plans supplied.

 

[Clayman]

The contractors usually have public liability insurance in place to cover these costs.
A must-have considering how **** our city councils are run, and how badly they control their planning and architecture efforts.

 

[ThatGuy_ZA]

I just don't understand why there isn't a standard depth logic applied to these things.

As in....

Water : 2m deep.

Power : 2.5m deep.

Fiber : 1.5m deep.

It really shouldn't be that hard.

This is a thing.

I spoke to the Octotel install guys in CT who said telecoms is 400mm below the surface (and the rest are 1200mm and 1800mm or something like that).

Octotel then proceeded to cut into the underground Telkom lines (accidentally) which they log with Telkom and get billed for the repair work (I'm not sure if their insurance covers it).

 

[pinball wizard]

I just don't understand why there isn't a standard depth logic applied to these things.

As in....

Water : 2m deep.

Power : 2.5m deep.

Fiber : 1.5m deep.

It really shouldn't be that hard.

So there are standard depths for municipal services (water and power) however, often times lately, when a repair is effected by council, that repair is not done at the specified depths. Coupled with the complete lack of plans at council level, even council no longer knows where and at what depth all the services are buried.

 

[ThatOtherDude]

Actually it depends on the water pipe size.

Small pipes (less than 10cm) is seen as a standard service repair.
J'burg Water or Ekurhuleni water (or whomever) just goes out and fixes it.
everybody happy.


If however the contractor hits a "big" pipe (100mm or bigger) then a fine is due.

J'burg water (or whomever) issues a fine against the Wayleave holder. (let's say Vodacom in this example)
Vodacom deducts the cost of the fine from the sub-contractor's invoiced amount.
The Sub-contractor sends the bill to their "liability" insurance.

If say, a sub contractor hits 7 x 100m pipes in a month then the fines can be SUPER SUBSTANTIAL.

That's why everyone;s doing scanning to "try and" determine where what is.


Unfortunately nowadays nobody cares for depth regulations - well, almost nobody,

conduits, pipes etc are burried (with or without danger tape) wherever the guy who burried it, felt OK with.

 

[chrisc]

Ok, wait, I just re-read this. How do you know this was a fibre contractor? The horizontal drilling machines are not cheap and generally whoever uses one is a recognised contractor and will have a wayleave. The fly-by-night cowboys would have illegally cut the road, especially on a weekend.

There was one guy operating the machine, and about 12 watching. Apparently this has happened before (according my neighbourhood watch)

 

[isie]

There was one guy operating the machine, and about 12 watching. Apparently this has happened before (according my neighbourhood watch)

THey hit the pipe and they call it in and leave pointless for them to hang around what they going to do repair it.