Avoid Van Dyke - Gas Leak

[EngGirl]

Originally Posted by Tim Tim Tim

Lets clear it up, the company knows exactly where their lines are, the rep you talked to didnt know how to access that information. Also, there are companies (every hear of 811) that are out to mark all utilities. Gas, power, communications and water. The issue comes when one company DOESN'T call 811 or if the contractor marks improperly (which doesnt happen often). My money goes on the fact that its the power company (or their contractor is the more likely case)who is at fault.

To make it very clear we didn't contact some random "rep" to get some random info. We contacted people who supposed to be responsible to provide this info to us because their facilities are within state/county/city right of way. The whole procedure was followed, 6 weeks were given utilities to review our plans and we've got "we are not sure about the exact location..."
Sure enough there are companies who can locate utilities. The question is who is going to pay for that? The right of way owner who allowed utilities to be there??? Because utility companies are not willing to pay for that (already tried that).
During our first messy project I though it's a local thing, but we had the same thing again - on all projects within different counties- "we don't know the exact location".
I am not sure who do you refer to be "a company"? We placed our ticket with sunshine811, got the list of utility companies within our project limits, names of contact people and followed standard procedure and got above mentioned responses.
The real problem with utilities in my opinion is that they show their proposed locations on the plans and their contractors put line +-5 ft off, so no wonder nobody knows the exact location.
Hate dealing with utility people, and thanks god I don't have to do it often.

[PhotoProIP]

Originally Posted by EngGirl

To make it very clear we didn't contact some random "rep" to get some random info. We contacted people who supposed to be responsible to provide this info to us because their facilities are within state/county/city right of way. The whole procedure was followed, 6 weeks were given utilities to review our plans and we've got "we are not sure about the exact location..."
Sure enough there are companies who can locate utilities. The question is who is going to pay for that? The right of way owner who allowed utilities to be there??? Because utility companies are not willing to pay for that (already tried that).
During our first messy project I though it's a local thing, but we had the same thing again - on all projects within different counties- "we don't know the exact location".
I am not sure who do you refer to be "a company"? We placed our ticket with sunshine811, got the list of utility companies within our project limits, names of contact people and followed standard procedure and got above mentioned responses.
The real problem with utilities in my opinion is that they show their proposed locations on the plans and their contractors put line +-5 ft off, so no wonder nobody knows the exact location.
Hate dealing with utility people, and thanks god I don't have to do it often.

6 weeks? were they all on vacation? that is ridiculous.

So let me see if I got this straight: they would rather break stuff and endanger innocent citizens, than hire someone to find the lines? wow...I guess that Gov+Utilities are more ignorant and skewed than I originally thought.

[EngGirl]

Originally Posted by PhotoProIP

6 weeks? were they all on vacation? that is ridiculous.

So let me see if I got this straight: they would rather break stuff and endanger innocent citizens, than hire someone to find the lines? wow...I guess that Gov+Utilities are more ignorant and skewed than I originally thought.

No, 6 weeks it's a standard time frame for us assuming utility companies receive many sets of plans to review.

There are many people involved in the process. It starts with design and ends with construction crew. There is a surveyor who is responsible to utilities locations, but all they do is the whole after their machine indicated the line under the ground. They do wholes only every so feet, and is the line is not going straight from point A to point B there is the chance to damage it during the construction. Most of the time accidents are avoided, but once in a while they happen. And it's not always utilities fault. Sometimes it's due to contractor doing a bad job.
Overall utilities are the mess and I never met anyone who enjoyed dealing or working with them.
P.S. Public utilities are the worse to get back with their mark ups and when they do, you see something any toddler can draw using red-green-brown-blue colors.... and they always put "*not accurate"....

[TampaKaren]

Oh crap! Glad I've been out of town. I'll ask DH tonight if he noticed anything. Poor Kohls! Lucky St. Joseph's Hospital is close by. Do you think this has anything to do with the widening of the Veteran's Expressway?

[Tim Tim Tim]

no, it was a ways off the veterans,

Engirl, im not sure what all of the details are but your story seems like a nightmare.

I work for the cable company, I can tell you just off of the print ROUGHLY where they are, in person I can tell you within a few inches where they are.

You should be able to call 811, give them the address and area that your going to be doing work, give them their few days and then everything will be marked. (water, power, gas, tel-co, cable).

[EngGirl]

Originally Posted by Tim Tim Tim

Engirl, im not sure what all of the details are but your story seems like a nightmare.

I work for the cable company, I can tell you just off of the print ROUGHLY where they are, in person I can tell you within a few inches where they are.

You should be able to call 811, give them the address and area that your going to be doing work, give them their few days and then everything will be marked. (water, power, gas, tel-co, cable).

Unfortunately nothing ever went smooth with utility companies we were dealing with. And I am talking about projects all over the place. My guess - because all our projects required utility relocations, so nobody was willing to do anything on time. But getting mark ups back is the something...
I can name few companies who really did their job well, but most - "we don't know the exact location, do SUE every 5 ft"...

[PhotoProIP]

Originally Posted by TampaKaren

Oh crap! Glad I've been out of town. I'll ask DH tonight if he noticed anything. Poor Kohls! Lucky St. Joseph's Hospital is close by. Do you think this has anything to do with the widening of the Veteran's Expressway?

Kohl's was not affected by this. The electric company was installing metal light poles and while they were digging for one that was close to the entrance to grace church/reflections they hit a gas line and cause the leak.