djk2000
join:2003-12-01
Kiel, WI | Orange Underground Cable Install
They are installing orange underground cable (fiber I believe) in our small town (Kiel, WI). we have Verizon as our local carrier. Any ideas what this might be? |
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jplove71
IBEW 113
Premium
join:2001-03-16
Colorado Springs, CO | FiOS? |
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mlbSAE
join:2000-08-01
Dayton, OH
 ·DONet
| reply to djk2000
I could be wrong, but any kind of cable that gets buried has to be orange now, I believe. I know that Time Warner ran their cable to my house with an orange cable and buried it.
If Verizon is the company burying it then you are lucky... FiOS would be the most likely scenario, as posted above. |
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jplove71
IBEW 113
Premium
join:2001-03-16
Colorado Springs, CO | Direct burial cable is not required to be a specific color. It just has to be rated for direct bury. A majority of the time, orange is the color used for fiber optic cable.
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Rakkasan! |
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Ken
Premium,MVM
join:2003-06-16
Brownsburg, IN
| reply to djk2000
Orange is the standard color for all buried communication cable. It doesn't necessarily mean it's fiber, it could be copper or even coax. Here is the full list of standard colors.
Red – Electric
Orange – Communications, Telephone/CATV
Blue – Potable Water
Green – Sewer/Drainage
Yellow – Gas/Petroleum Pipe Line
Purple – Reclaimed Water |
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mlbSAE
join:2000-08-01
Dayton, OH
·DONet
| said by Ken  :Orange is the standard color for all buried communication cable. It doesn't necessarily mean it's fiber, it could be copper or even coax. Here is the full list of standard colors. Thanks Ken. I thought that was the rule of thumb. |
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dingo
join:2009-02-08
Combined Locks, WI
| reply to djk2000
The colors mentioned in the earlier post are locate paint colors. IE red paint are electric lines, green paint is a sewerage line, etc. Thet have nothing to do with the color of the utility itself. What you are seeing buried is prolly an orange conduit for a fiber cable (which is black.) |
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Ken
Premium,MVM
join:2003-06-16
Brownsburg, IN
| No, that is not just the paint colors. The lines themselves are most often made from plastic that is color coded to that chart. So for example Gas line is almost always made from yellow plastic, and water lines are almost always made from blue plastic. Sometimes the big water mains are made from black plastic, but they have a blue stripe on them. There is no law requiring utilities to follow this, so they are free to do whatever they want, but big utility companies do tend to follow the standard. |
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Hall
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-28
Dayton, OH
·EarthLink
·AT&T Midwest
 ·Earthlink Cable Mo..
| said by Ken : The lines themselves are most often made from plastic that is color coded to that chart. So for example Gas line is almost always made from yellow plastic, and water lines are almost always made from blue plastic. Sometimes the big water mains are made from black plastic, but they have a blue stripe on them. Every underground "data" cabling I have seen has been orange (in the past 5 or so years). In our neighborhood, many natural gas lines have been replaced and they are always bright-*ss yellow. And FWIW, apparently the letters "WATER" being cast-in to the cover to the water-meter access in my front sidewalk isn't sufficient ... so someone spray-painted them all blue. |
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hulltech
Premium
join:2001-12-14
Sheboygan, WI
·Charter Pipeline
| reply to djk2000
I'm in Sheboygan and if I'm not mistaken it's the new AT&T service. In my backyard they ran it without me knowing it. Instead of being completely underground it's ran right at the surface to go over a tree root and then it's back underground. Not a very professional job if you ask me.
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"If you can't lead the intellectuals, then at least lead the perverts. There are far more of them, and most of them are the intellectuals." |
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dingo
join:2009-02-08
Combined Locks, WI
| reply to Ken
Yes, that is just the paint color. Because some gas lines are yellow, and some water pipes are blue, does not mean every utility is the color of the paint used to locate it. I have never seen a red power line or green sewer pipe. Nor an orange CATV cable. Orange has been used to locate telephone at least since the early 70's when
I started. I have never seen a telephone cable (not service wire) that was not black. Today I worked in a pit with white and black sewer lines...both located with green paint. The power line was black (as always)-not red. You are misinformed or generalizing.... |
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Ken
Premium,MVM
join:2003-06-16
Brownsburg, IN
| I will say it again because apparently I am not being very clear. The colors I posted above are the colors of paint used to locate the utilities. However when the utility is run inside of plastic conduit, or plastic pipe, or sometimes the wire itself will be color coded to those same colors.
Every gas line I have seen for the last 10 years is yellow plastic pipe. Every water main I have seen in the last 10 years is either blue plastic pipe, or black plastic with a blue stripe. Electrical around here at least is never placed in conduit underground, so no you aren't going to see red. Sewer pipe if it is small plastic feeder line is often colored green, but the larger sewer mains are just concrete pipe. I have seen underground communication cable that is orange many many times.
My dad owned an excavating business growing up, and I was involved in my own excavating business for some time, so I am speaking from my own personal experience of seeing these things in the ground. I'm not just talking about the paint colors the locate service use, but anything that is plastic is often color coded. Also like I said before not every utility is going to do this, but most of the big ones do. It is in there best interest to do so, as a yellow gas line is more visible in a hole than a black gas line. |
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