Alberta One call

[nzwasp]

I am building a greenhouse in my back yard this spring and I called alberta one call to mark out utilities in the backyard, has anyone here ever had utilities running through their backyard? is it that common?

[ExtraSlow]

Super common. I have a gas line in my back yard. Water comes in the front, and power+telco are overhead.

[AudiPWR]

yeah of course its common...

[CapnCrunch]

They can be anywhere. Front, back, side.

[colinderksen]

Be aware that putting in a first call will not bring up everything running through your backyard.

Ie. power/water put in by you/previous home owner to garage ECT. Shaw. And the like.

[bookem]

You'll have to call Shaw independently, they are no longer notified by or affiliated with Alberta One Call

[nzwasp]

who cares about shaw. certaintly not me.

[spike98]

Originally posted by nzwasp
who cares about shaw. certaintly not me.

Until you dig up there lines and have to pay to fix it...

[speedog]

On topic, got gas in my backyard. Sewer/water go out the front and ENMAX/TELUS/Shaw is overhead in the rear.

Off topic, WTF is Alberta One call good for is they're not going to do all locates? - wasn't that the whole point of their existence in the first place? Certainly I wasn't aware that Shaw isn't a part of Alberta One call and I'm sure many others aren't aware of that as well.

[bookem]

Originally posted by nzwasp
who cares about shaw. certaintly not me.

I hired a contractor who dug up (cut) the big Shaw line for the entire neigbourhood. I don't care about Shaw either, but I do care about internet access. They did not charge us for the repair, though.

Originally posted by speedog
Off topic, WTF is Alberta One call good for is they're not going to do all locates? - wasn't that the whole point of their existence in the first place? Certainly I wasn't aware that Shaw isn't a part of Alberta One call and I'm sure many others aren't aware of that as well.

Was a surprise to me too. The Shaw repair tech seemed to think it was a terrible idea, and this was not the first call he responded to because of it.

[stillworking]

When register a ticket with Alberta 1 Call, they search the address or land location you provide to see which of their members have underground facilities at that location, they then notify each of those members with the information you provided. The tickets 'workorders' are handled differently across the province. In Calgary, there is a company that has the City Consortium contract and all tickets go directly to them. They then dispatch techs to the location within the two working days. In NE Calgary for example, you might have Nexen notified or Alberta Products Pipeline notified in addition to the City Consortium.
On your property you may have to hire someone to locate lines past the meter, although ATCO wants the city locators to mark secondary gas lines to the garage, etc.

The thing to keep in mind is the majority of these city locators have been put through a two week crash course on how to do the job, so you cannot always trust the completeness or accuracy of the locate. The hand dig zone is 1M from either edge of the marks which are usually about 0.6M wide. These guys know that if any damage happens within this 2.6M wide buffer zone they are not liable. In some cases they don't even bother actually marking the actual line, but rather just painting the marks. This happens quite a bit between houses.

Shaw is not a member of Alberta 1 Call. Search Dig Shaw to get in contact with them. It is cheaper for them to fix what gets damaged then responding to every single request like Enmax/ATCO/Telus.

[speedog]

Originally posted by stillworking
When register a ticket with Alberta 1 Call, they search the address or land location you provide to see which of their members have underground facilities at that location, they then notify each of those members with the information you provided. The tickets 'workorders' are handled differently across the province. In Calgary, there is a company that has the City Consortium contract and all tickets go directly to them. They then dispatch techs to the location within the two working days. In NE Calgary for example, you might have Nexen notified or Alberta Products Pipeline notified in addition to the City Consortium.
On your property you may have to hire someone to locate lines past the meter, although ATCO wants the city locators to mark secondary gas lines to the garage, etc.

The thing to keep in mind is the majority of these city locators have been put through a two week crash course on how to do the job, so you cannot always trust the completeness or accuracy of the locate. The hand dig zone is 1M from either edge of the marks which are usually about 0.6M wide. These guys know that if any damage happens within this 2.6M wide buffer zone they are not liable. In some cases they don't even bother actually marking the actual line, but rather just painting the marks. This happens quite a bit between houses.

Shaw is not a member of Alberta 1 Call. Search Dig Shaw to get in contact with them. It is cheaper for them to fix what gets damaged then responding to every single request like Enmax/ATCO/Telus.

So please do explain why a locate request that was performed on our yard this past week didn't include any of the sewer or water lines being located or marked on either our yard or on the piece of paper that the locator left behind. Last time I checked, sewer and water on our lot were still very much underground - the locator did manage to locate/mark the underground gas line in the rear of our property and the underground electrical line that feeds the streetlights in the front of our yard though.

[blairtruck]

sewer and water are over 6ft deep. im a surveyor and when we post the property corner pins at every houses property corners. we need first call to come and mark the whole subdivision. takes a few days for them to do it. never once have they marked sewer or water.

[ExtraSlow]

The marked water supply at my place when i called. Weird.

[nzwasp]

Well the guy came by today and Im pretty glad he did. Since im on the corner lot in my neighborhood. The gas, high voltage power, telus and shaw all run vertically up my yard right through where we want to put our greenhouse.

Now he didnt know how deep the lines are he said they are supposed to be 36 inches deep and if i did with a shovel I should be fine. I only want to dig down about six inches. However he said construction companies commonly do whatever the hell they want so it might be right underneath the top soil.

So either I grade up or I choose a different spot.

[CapnCrunch]

Sort of related, but how do they actually locate this stuff. Do they have a site drawing of all the utilities and then measure and mark them out, or do they use some sort of detection equipment to get the exact locations?

[stillworking]

Originally posted by speedog


So please do explain why a locate request that was performed on our yard this past week didn't include any of the sewer or water lines being located or marked on either our yard or on the piece of paper that the locator left behind. Last time I checked, sewer and water on our lot were still very much underground - the locator did manage to locate/mark the underground gas line in the rear of our property and the underground electrical line that feeds the streetlights in the front of our yard though.

They are supposed to mark the water valve location on homeowner tickets, but may not bother taking the time to find it if your depth is stated as under 6 ft. The water/sewer line are in common trench and usually go straight from the valve into the house. They never mark the actual location from the valve to the house.

Originally posted by nzwasp
Well the guy came by today and Im pretty glad he did. Since im on the corner lot in my neighborhood. The gas, high voltage power, telus and shaw all run vertically up my yard right through where we want to put our greenhouse.

Now he didnt know how deep the lines are he said they are supposed to be 36 inches deep and if i did with a shovel I should be fine. I only want to dig down about six inches. However he said construction companies commonly do whatever the hell they want so it might be right underneath the top soil.

So either I grade up or I choose a different spot.

You are not permitted to encroach on the easement...

https://www.enmax.com/ForYourBusines...uments/URW.pdf

Originally posted by CapnCrunch
Sort of related, but how do they actually locate this stuff. Do they have a site drawing of all the utilities and then measure and mark them out, or do they use some sort of detection equipment to get the exact locations?

A little bit of both. Mainlines are mostly on the maps, and the services from mains into structures have to be field located.

They use RadioDetection brand equipment in the city.

[speedog]

Personally did locating for TELUS back in the early 90's and it was all done with handheld cable locating equipment. Connected a little device to the cable at an access point and the handheld unit would pick up that signal. One could pretty accurately determine the depth and location of the cable but liability concerns and such means that only a general side to side locate is flagged/marked.

Great job when workingl in the country but much more problematic in urban areas what with all the active and abandoned underground infrastructure.

[blairtruck]

also there locating machines can tell depth but they wont tell the person digging. for safety incase they say 36" and its only 32" as the depth is measured to the middle of the pipe/cable
i have done a little locating in my career. if we are marking apipleine on a lease site we will put the depth on the lathe for the hydro truck thats on its way.

[GTS4tw]

Originally posted by stillworking


The thing to keep in mind is the majority of these city locators have been put through a two week crash course on how to do the job, so you cannot always trust the completeness or accuracy of the locate. The hand dig zone is 1M from either edge of the marks which are usually about 0.6M wide. These guys know that if any damage happens within this 2.6M wide buffer zone they are not liable. In some cases they don't even bother actually marking the actual line, but rather just painting the marks. This happens quite a bit between houses.

This is a great rule to follow....usually. I was digging well outside the zone once after getting it properly marked out and hit a gas line with a small excavator!! Everyone makes mistakes at work, some can be brutal though. Luckily it was right on the side of my trench and I exposed it with the side of a landscape bucket. Seeing that yellow line made a bit of poo come out! It was at least 15 feet from where it was marked.