Underground Electric Service depth

[lilranch2001]

I need to cross my underground electric service with a trench
Does anyone have an idea how deep is code for the REMC to bury the cables?
I am going to have the call before you dig people come mark it, but am just a little leery crossing it
:confused3:

 

[cycle_gator]

Usually three feet minimum for the service entrance. Don't take any chances, even after it is marked, dig it out by hand, Two feet on either side of the marking is a good rule if thumb. If the service was installed recently and to code you should find a warning ribbon, usually a 3" red plastic ribbon, buried a foot above the service line.

 

[compact]

Having recently yanked my 3KV underground conduit out of the ground by accident with a mini-ex, the power will be 12" shallower than you expect. Call digsafe and dig out by hand is very good advice.

 

[tractchores]

Depth varies by local regulation. Here its 18", but i had to put a french drain over mine and didn't see it even aft a 4' hole (done by hand). Unfortunately dig safe may not know depth, definitely do the area by hand.

 

[DutchHenryBrown]

When the locator person shows up to do the locate be nice, it always worked for me when I located buried cable for a living. Maybe he or she will show you how the unit works I use to and if the customer was looking over my shoulder oops they might see the depth reading??

P.S. Please HAND DIG and expose for depth before using any equipment!!:thumbsup:

 

[lilranch2001]

Thanks everyone!

 

[Train]

The problem with exposing by hand is it's hard work and people get impatient, and that leads to bad decisions. I had to cross my natural gas service and telephone line on a recent install, and my ground here is harder than ****. I used my pressure washer and a shop vac to do the digging. Took me no time at all to go 3 feet to find the gas line, and about 18 inches for the phone.

When they mark the line, they can tell how deep it is too, but they're not supposed to tell you that. I talked the guy marking the phone line into telling me how deep it was, and it was to the inch where he said it would be.

 

[paulharvey]

They should locate it to the meter, but from your meter to house is your baby. Don't know if that's what you ment.

Even with power I've found BIG 3 phase primaries at less than 12", and smaller, single phase primaries (feeding a small 20 home subdivision) that did a weird loop and rises to with in 12" (before the PC-200 found it...). Don't assume its deep. Also generally with powerlines the locater can pick them up easily, but less exact (?power mode) than when they can actually hook up to a line (like a copper phone line or tracer wire in water main).

 

[LD1]

Around me, the local coop will locate to the meter for free. And will locate from meter to house for a charge.

They bury secondary 24". (thats everything after the transformer). Primary (7200v) is 36" down. But it isnt an exact science. And also keep in mind that even the marking isnt exact. I think they are allowed to be off by as much as a foot and still be okay. So if their marks are 10" off and you hit the line....still your fault. Now if they are 3' off, technically, its their fault, but good luck proving it. It would be easy for them to say tough luck, you or someone else may have moved their marking flags. So do as others have suggested and dig bu hand.

 

[rmk700]

Yeah hand dig and be very patient it can get expensive and dangerous hitting it. Find the line (possibly more than one line) first then you can carefully dig closer with machine using a helper.

 

[dieselcrawler]

As an electrician by trade I can't stress enough the danger of digging into a buried electric line... even the service wire from the transformer to the house/meter @ 120/240 volts has huge damage potential due to the over current protection device (100 to 200 amp main breaker) is downstream from where you are digging. If you short it out the fuseable link on the high voltage side of the transformer is next in line and is sized to allow full capacity of the transformer... a couple thousand amps in some cases.

Sure diggin by hand is a pain and slow. But it's easier than a trip to the hospital or funeral home. Be safe.