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Comment by quickthrowman

5 hours ago

It has been conjectured that the easiest way to locate a buried fiber optic cable is to start digging.

(The actual easiest method is to install the conduit or direct burial cable with tracer wire)

7 comments

quickthrowman

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bluGill  4 hours ago

Fiber was all installed long after we knew locating it was important. I suspect it all had a tracer wire installed with it. Of course sometimes the tracer wire can break.

Before fiber a lot of things were put into the ground with no thought how you would find it again.

  • quickthrowman  4 hours ago

    Indeed, tracer wire is usually bonded to a (sacrificial) magnesium anode, but it’s a crapshoot whether the tracer wire is still intact.

    I sometimes hire directional boring and excavation contractors and if there’s any doubt as to where an electrical conduit or natural gas pipe is, I opt for the hydrovac truck to minimize risk.

wat10000  4 hours ago

Always bring a length of fiber optic cable when you're in the wilderness. If you get lost or stranded, bury the cable. Within a few hours, a backhoe will stop by to dig it up, and the crew will rescue you.

dboreham  4 hours ago

Local people know where they are because once upon a time a D8 drove through pulling a big orange spool of fiber conduit and passers by chatted about how another fiber was going in. Also around here the contractors seeded the disturbed ground with a wildflower mix (presumably to discourage weeds) so you can also look for straps of wildflowers.

And of course there are marker posts that say "buried fiber optic cable do not dig".

  • pixl97  4 hours ago

    Once you get out farther from civilization these signs become less common and there are more situations where they can get removed.

    Most cheap hired labor doesn't realize you shouldn't dig up the market posts and throw them in the dumpster on construction sites. Add a little bit of rain and suddenly the contractor showing up with an excavator that was told everything was properly marked, and can see markings in other places but not where they are digging, and disaster occurs.

    Also soils aren't static, I've been on sites where the midpoint of a buried telecommunications cable had drifted over 8 feet from where the markers were a few hundred yards apart. Just looking at the markers and assuming a straight line isn't a safe bet. Looking at the fence rows to the left and right of the cable and you could see a matching bow in the fence rows.