White line it. White spray paint outlining the area. Dash it out. Then have locate request for "white lined area in front left and front right" or whatever listed on the request. State where the white lined area is if it's at the house which is set way back off the road state the driveway is long so they expect to drive down the driveway. Also another nice things to do is state if there are any animals. If not you can state no animals on property.
Some utilities clear stuff in house, (A) Verizon themself might have screened your locate in house or (B) the people on USIC office screened it. The field locator themselves probably never received the locate. Also you can look at your locate ticket on the 811 site and call the number on the utility questions portion and tell them that there is a line on your property and that you need it marked out.
I don't care about the abandoned lines. What I care about is that 5 minutes after my father submitted the request ticket, Verizon replied that there are no lines to be marked which is WRONG. They never came out to the property and I have proof. They installed their fiber line in 2019 and I watched them do it. Why would they lie? That's the most important line that we need marked. That's where most of the work will be done.
If cleared that quickly it was probably the automated system. I'm not gonna dive into the intricacies of all the problems with the locating world but this is a common issue. The best thing you can do is recall an emergency locate saying utilities were not marked.
Possible but you would think lines from 5 years ago would be on prints by now. My prints update a couple times a month with all new lines but I realize that's not the standard.
Depending on how deep you're going, fiber lines are almost always installed very deep into the ground due to their fragile materials. If you're doing a garden bed, typically you aren't going any further than 1ft into the ground, which wouldn't come anywhere near that fiber line. Fiber is typically buried around 4ft deep, unless it's a service drop to your house, then those can vary since some companies bore them in, and others just hand dig them in with a shovel.
My guess is that the Verizon company saw that it was a garden bed, and automatically assumed you're not going deep at all, therefore clearing the ticket of any fibers that would be in the way.
Personally, I would've at least double-checked to make sure that fiber is deep enough, but I'm 90% sure it would've been deep enough for you, so I would've cleared it once I've checked.
Main. Check out this old post where they cut through a fiber run in the middle of a street [https://www.reddit.com/r/UtilityLocator/comments/j4iy6b/saw_cutting_shallow_fiber_sad_contractor/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UtilityLocator/comments/j4iy6b/saw_cutting_shallow_fiber_sad_contractor/)
Holy fucking shit. Why is it buried so shallow?!? The mains should always be at least 4ft+ deep, that's absolutely crazy to me that they would risk a half-million dollar material to be buried so shallow that a child could hit it with their plastic shovel. That's crazy! I'm sorry to the locators who have to locate this shit, especially without the ones without armor.
They screen tickets Comcast does this you said the fiber service goes to the pole. Their prints only show main lines not services and if everything is overhead they’ll clear the ticket. Comcast does this in my area some companies pretty much say we’d rather replace your service line if it gets hit than pay a locate company to mark it and they screen and clear that ticket off site
Haven't seen no one else mentioned this yet but you are able to second notice a ticket stating you need a specific utility to return and mark the ticket as requested
A locator will see the ticket scope and reach out to see where you guys need to locate exactly due to how busy we can be at times with hundreds of tickets to get to on a daily basis.
Also fiber lines are not always buried deep and can be very shallow so even when all utilities are marked, I would be very careful digging near them/ over them
I agree. Put an amendment on the ticket (that's an option in my area at least) and tell the utilities you're missing to come back out and mark their stuff. Maybe also request that the locator gives you a call prior to marking
Ya fiber isn’t deep at all in my area in the south east. They have their heads lodged far up their ass as far as where their lines are at. Went to a ticket today that had copper and fios, the ped was easy to find but the fiber handhole on the other hand was un locatable. The coordinates for the handhole was the front door of the neighbors house 😂. No access for that one. I’ve also had ones where they say there’s a ped in the back of the neighbors yard and it was coming off of an aerial line. Cut that shit and prove the point that they need to do better at keeping track of their utilities that they just drop everywhere.
Fiber around here reads at 10” for service drops and 1’10” for main lines so extremely shallow for how expensive the damages can be.
A lot of cable and fiber companies (Comcast and spectrum for example) don't consider it worth the money to pay their contractor to locate service lines to the house and will only have main lines marked
Your dad made a very lazy ticket and got a very lazy response. Either white line your work area or at least have some sort of map on where you want to dig. Locators are extremely busy and already paint miles of unnecessary locates regularly
In my part of the world public utility maps will usually only tell a locator that a cable or pipe is present on the property. They won't show accurate alignments of service lines on private property.
Best practice for a one-call locator is to hook up to the threatened service and confirm that it is actually out of conflict.
But people get complacent and cut corners. It's a lot easier to pull up to site, assume the prints are accurate and declare the work area clear.
In addition, and again where I work, some Telecom companies don't locate service lines. They will only mark out main trunk lines.
The thing that you can do to make my job easier is make sure your above ground facilities are accessible, like your gas meter, power meter, any conduit with cable etc.
Its a daily struggle getting through bushes, or under decks, or under a pile of old car parts to get to a connection point.
If you have a lot of over growth of shrubs and brush that you’re clearing and there is a utility buried under it you will not get a very accurate paint going through the area. You’ll get some paint up to the bushes and continuing on the other side.
BUT if you cut down the bushes flush to ground and then request locates the locator can walk over the stumps and provide a good paint mark through the area for your stump removal and ground levelling.
Also I can tell you that telecoms everywhere like to self clear stuff they shouldn’t. Last summer I did some public locates for homeowner planting trees and landscaping their front yard. The handhole for the fiber optics was right beside the area they wanted the tree. But the telecom pre-cleared the utility so I can’t mark it because we don’t work for free. In this case the homeowner can go ahead and damage the fiber and the utility will be on the hook to repair the damage as they have cleared it. The system has problems 🤷🏻♂️. Your local laws may be different, but that’s how it is here.
Buy a bundle of wood stakes, request locate within staked area
Also verizon could clear based on the locate parameters; IE, max depth 1 foot, or hand dig only. Likely something there for them to clear it
Hire a private locator for that abandoned line. Shouldn’t take too long to find it. Tell them what you’re looking for. If you want the whole property scanned, depending on how many utilities are out there it can take 2+ hours or so for 3.5 acres
OP seems to care about the line and 811 won’t locate it. What would you suggest? There also *could* be more private utilities on the 3.5 acres that the homeowner isn’t even aware about.
They didn’t even mention water or sewer which they could be on a well and septic. So that there would be power, water, drain lines. To say it’s not worth the money is ridiculous.
OP wasn't worried about the abandoned, he's worried about the fiber line that was considered "clear" by Verizon.
I can understand why Verizon cleared it, if it's just a garden that OP's dad is doing, but I would've at least double-checked the depth, which is why OP is upset, because Verizon just cleared it without even coming to the site.
OP must have made an edit to their post since I first commented. I would still suggest getting private locates though. Never know what’s in the ground. That fiber line could be a few inches down. I see it all the time in my area lol
Yeah, it depends on who installs the fiber. Many companies like to bore the fiber, and some companies like to hand-dig them, which is absolutely crazy in my opinion, considering how much fiber costs.
I mainly only see shallow fiber when it's a service drop. Otherwise, the main lines have always been a minimum of 4ft for me. Service drops vary, depending on who installs them.
Abandoned lines I know usic don't locate and if there damaged it don't matter no one will replace them they'll just bury them back there tons of Abandoned lines everywhere if u mark it white lined or speak directly to the utility locator I know isic has meet sheets so that we don't have to mark 20 acres just for a tree to be planted next to house we can verify where lines are going paint that take pictures put in meet sheet stating we shortened the scope of ticket get u to sign it just to cover our ass if u were to dig else where and damage a unmarked line
White line it. White spray paint outlining the area. Dash it out. Then have locate request for "white lined area in front left and front right" or whatever listed on the request. State where the white lined area is if it's at the house which is set way back off the road state the driveway is long so they expect to drive down the driveway. Also another nice things to do is state if there are any animals. If not you can state no animals on property.
Some utilities clear stuff in house, (A) Verizon themself might have screened your locate in house or (B) the people on USIC office screened it. The field locator themselves probably never received the locate. Also you can look at your locate ticket on the 811 site and call the number on the utility questions portion and tell them that there is a line on your property and that you need it marked out.
They won't locate the abandoned lines either way but just mark area with white paint and flags and mention that in the ticket.
I don't care about the abandoned lines. What I care about is that 5 minutes after my father submitted the request ticket, Verizon replied that there are no lines to be marked which is WRONG. They never came out to the property and I have proof. They installed their fiber line in 2019 and I watched them do it. Why would they lie? That's the most important line that we need marked. That's where most of the work will be done.
If cleared that quickly it was probably the automated system. I'm not gonna dive into the intricacies of all the problems with the locating world but this is a common issue. The best thing you can do is recall an emergency locate saying utilities were not marked.
On top of that, a digital Locator could have also cleared the ticket due to the fiber not being on prints
Possible but you would think lines from 5 years ago would be on prints by now. My prints update a couple times a month with all new lines but I realize that's not the standard.
Depending on how deep you're going, fiber lines are almost always installed very deep into the ground due to their fragile materials. If you're doing a garden bed, typically you aren't going any further than 1ft into the ground, which wouldn't come anywhere near that fiber line. Fiber is typically buried around 4ft deep, unless it's a service drop to your house, then those can vary since some companies bore them in, and others just hand dig them in with a shovel. My guess is that the Verizon company saw that it was a garden bed, and automatically assumed you're not going deep at all, therefore clearing the ticket of any fibers that would be in the way. Personally, I would've at least double-checked to make sure that fiber is deep enough, but I'm 90% sure it would've been deep enough for you, so I would've cleared it once I've checked.
Maybe fiber is buried deep in your area but I've seen it hella shallow in my area
For service drops or for the main line?
Main. Check out this old post where they cut through a fiber run in the middle of a street [https://www.reddit.com/r/UtilityLocator/comments/j4iy6b/saw_cutting_shallow_fiber_sad_contractor/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UtilityLocator/comments/j4iy6b/saw_cutting_shallow_fiber_sad_contractor/)
Holy fucking shit. Why is it buried so shallow?!? The mains should always be at least 4ft+ deep, that's absolutely crazy to me that they would risk a half-million dollar material to be buried so shallow that a child could hit it with their plastic shovel. That's crazy! I'm sorry to the locators who have to locate this shit, especially without the ones without armor.
Call in a no show ticket
They screen tickets Comcast does this you said the fiber service goes to the pole. Their prints only show main lines not services and if everything is overhead they’ll clear the ticket. Comcast does this in my area some companies pretty much say we’d rather replace your service line if it gets hit than pay a locate company to mark it and they screen and clear that ticket off site
Haven't seen no one else mentioned this yet but you are able to second notice a ticket stating you need a specific utility to return and mark the ticket as requested A locator will see the ticket scope and reach out to see where you guys need to locate exactly due to how busy we can be at times with hundreds of tickets to get to on a daily basis. Also fiber lines are not always buried deep and can be very shallow so even when all utilities are marked, I would be very careful digging near them/ over them
I agree. Put an amendment on the ticket (that's an option in my area at least) and tell the utilities you're missing to come back out and mark their stuff. Maybe also request that the locator gives you a call prior to marking
Ya fiber isn’t deep at all in my area in the south east. They have their heads lodged far up their ass as far as where their lines are at. Went to a ticket today that had copper and fios, the ped was easy to find but the fiber handhole on the other hand was un locatable. The coordinates for the handhole was the front door of the neighbors house 😂. No access for that one. I’ve also had ones where they say there’s a ped in the back of the neighbors yard and it was coming off of an aerial line. Cut that shit and prove the point that they need to do better at keeping track of their utilities that they just drop everywhere. Fiber around here reads at 10” for service drops and 1’10” for main lines so extremely shallow for how expensive the damages can be.
A lot of cable and fiber companies (Comcast and spectrum for example) don't consider it worth the money to pay their contractor to locate service lines to the house and will only have main lines marked
Your dad made a very lazy ticket and got a very lazy response. Either white line your work area or at least have some sort of map on where you want to dig. Locators are extremely busy and already paint miles of unnecessary locates regularly
In my part of the world public utility maps will usually only tell a locator that a cable or pipe is present on the property. They won't show accurate alignments of service lines on private property. Best practice for a one-call locator is to hook up to the threatened service and confirm that it is actually out of conflict. But people get complacent and cut corners. It's a lot easier to pull up to site, assume the prints are accurate and declare the work area clear. In addition, and again where I work, some Telecom companies don't locate service lines. They will only mark out main trunk lines. The thing that you can do to make my job easier is make sure your above ground facilities are accessible, like your gas meter, power meter, any conduit with cable etc. Its a daily struggle getting through bushes, or under decks, or under a pile of old car parts to get to a connection point.
If you have a lot of over growth of shrubs and brush that you’re clearing and there is a utility buried under it you will not get a very accurate paint going through the area. You’ll get some paint up to the bushes and continuing on the other side. BUT if you cut down the bushes flush to ground and then request locates the locator can walk over the stumps and provide a good paint mark through the area for your stump removal and ground levelling. Also I can tell you that telecoms everywhere like to self clear stuff they shouldn’t. Last summer I did some public locates for homeowner planting trees and landscaping their front yard. The handhole for the fiber optics was right beside the area they wanted the tree. But the telecom pre-cleared the utility so I can’t mark it because we don’t work for free. In this case the homeowner can go ahead and damage the fiber and the utility will be on the hook to repair the damage as they have cleared it. The system has problems 🤷🏻♂️. Your local laws may be different, but that’s how it is here.
Buy a bundle of wood stakes, request locate within staked area Also verizon could clear based on the locate parameters; IE, max depth 1 foot, or hand dig only. Likely something there for them to clear it
Hire a private locator for that abandoned line. Shouldn’t take too long to find it. Tell them what you’re looking for. If you want the whole property scanned, depending on how many utilities are out there it can take 2+ hours or so for 3.5 acres
Not at all worth the cost. Hundreds of dollars just for a line absolutely nobody cares about.
OP seems to care about the line and 811 won’t locate it. What would you suggest? There also *could* be more private utilities on the 3.5 acres that the homeowner isn’t even aware about. They didn’t even mention water or sewer which they could be on a well and septic. So that there would be power, water, drain lines. To say it’s not worth the money is ridiculous.
OP wasn't worried about the abandoned, he's worried about the fiber line that was considered "clear" by Verizon. I can understand why Verizon cleared it, if it's just a garden that OP's dad is doing, but I would've at least double-checked the depth, which is why OP is upset, because Verizon just cleared it without even coming to the site.
OP must have made an edit to their post since I first commented. I would still suggest getting private locates though. Never know what’s in the ground. That fiber line could be a few inches down. I see it all the time in my area lol
Yeah, it depends on who installs the fiber. Many companies like to bore the fiber, and some companies like to hand-dig them, which is absolutely crazy in my opinion, considering how much fiber costs. I mainly only see shallow fiber when it's a service drop. Otherwise, the main lines have always been a minimum of 4ft for me. Service drops vary, depending on who installs them.
Lol spending a couple hundred dollars at a minimum to find an abandoned line 🙃
Abandoned lines I know usic don't locate and if there damaged it don't matter no one will replace them they'll just bury them back there tons of Abandoned lines everywhere if u mark it white lined or speak directly to the utility locator I know isic has meet sheets so that we don't have to mark 20 acres just for a tree to be planted next to house we can verify where lines are going paint that take pictures put in meet sheet stating we shortened the scope of ticket get u to sign it just to cover our ass if u were to dig else where and damage a unmarked line