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What are these pipes for ?

RogerS

RogerS

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I know how much you guys like a mystery so..
...what are these pipes for ?

 
If that is a farmer, then I would be surprised if it is a land-drain. They tend to use coils of corrugated pipe, rather than 6 metre lengths of (expensive) PVC pipes. Knowing what is at either end of the line of the pipes would give us a clue..... :eusa-whistle:
 
None of the above.

They are black.

They are not being used for drainage.

Way of the mark, so far :D
 
:lol:

No, nor are they for ferret racing.

I'll give you all a little clue. The purpose for which they are being put is fairly topical as in the news recently a much larger similar useage/operation has been mooted for elsewhere in the country albeit at a much higher cost.
 
It's to enable dinky toys to drive underneath an ancient monument which isn't Stonehenge.

Obviously.
 
It's your extremely long musical trumpet project you've been keeping secret. When is the funnel bit going on?
 
Andyp":3n71xyvf said:
Power cables for a wind turbine
Click to expand...

Pretty close. They are 'undergrounding' (a new word to me) the 11kv overhead power lines that feed us and the farm. They did want to feed our 240v from the transformer underground to our house but we squashed that. Too much destruction to a long established garden.
 
I thought underground ducting had to comply with standard colour coding these days hence Rod's question

red = power
blue = water
yellow = gas
green = telecoms
purple = motorway cctv etc

I suppose they must know that what they are doing is allowed??

Bob
 
A good question, Bob. I've no idea but I'm not going to ask !! It's taken several years of gentle nudging to get this far.
 
Black is often used for power so should be OK?
Much better to have cables in the ground - our village was without electricity for 3weeks back in 1987 when the overhead lines were brought down in the "Great Storm".

Rod
 
The cable layers have been up this week and, boy, have they been making heavy weather of it!

First off, they broke the pull-through rope that had been installed as they laid the pipes. So they rodded the first run and pulled through another rope.

Next up, as they turned (a very tight radius) or rather tried to turn the very tight radius, the cable snagged on one of the pipe junctions. Given that they used straight lengths of black pipe to create the radius, it is hardly surprising. So the digger had to come out and excavate !

I don't envy them as the wind has been right sharp.

I was curious to now what sort of cable they'd use and it's a sort of twisted 'three' - looks rubberised and very expensive.
 
We have recently had similar sounding cable fitted to our overhead supplies down the lane. each part of the twist is a coaxial cable with the live in the centre and the neutral on the outer, this is insulated and then twisted to give a three phase supply from pole to pole. Incoming single phase cable to the house is a single cable but is also coaxial and much neater that the previous two separate live and bare neutral wires that used to feed the house.
I expect the underground cable will also be jelly filled. In the event of damage, this will stop water running down the cable inside and potentially flooding underground junctions etc

My NTL- now Virgin phone and internet cable is also jelly filled and it is horrid sticky stuff that gets everywhere on the terminations when I've needed to modify them.

Bob
 
I think you've hit the nail on the head, Bob. Had a nose last night. The cables are about 30mm diameter and the ends securely capped. I can't believe that they would bother to cap the ends unless perhaps they were concerned about moisture tracking back up the cable. So probably, as you say, to keep the gel in.

Just hope they cone and do the work ASAP as there is a public footpath walks past about 60m of cable on the ground. Thief fodder.
 
One of my last jobs involved the relocating of an overground three phase supply to an underground supply. The installation of the ducting for the new cable which was supplied by Eon was a black plastic pipe with a concertina outer that allowed the straight lengths to be bent.

We were responsible for laying the ducting on the land owned by the client. Even though the bend up into the premises was a large radius they still struggled pulling the cable through on what was a short run when compared to what your photo appears to show.


Kind regards,

Frank.
 
That's very interesting, Frank and great to hear from someone in the industry.

The photo shows but part of the run. From the pole (photo left) it runs along the headland until the right angle corner where they had the problem. From there it runs down the side of the hedge for several hundred yards.
 
The hot-glove team were onsite today. Very impressed with what these guys can do (and safely). Three overhead 11kv lines. While keeping them live, they inserted a cut-out switch into the line so that when they come to connect up the underground cable in a couple of weeks time, it minimises the number of houses who will be without power during the connecting up.

Western Power Distribution are a great company in my experience.

SWMBO vetoed me going down to watch :evil:
 
Next week is the great undergrounding finish. Western Power have had some guys up yesterday doing as much work in advance as possible to minimise the downtime of the supply. Talking to the guys, Western Power set great store at minimising this and in my experience this is certainly the case.

I'll probably fire up the generator although I suspect the Sedgwick would kill it even though it's rated at 6kW !!
 
Come 5 o'clock they had done everything. Removed the earth straps from the 11kv spur feeding us and the other houses, and then re-energised our 11KV spur. They then came up to replace the LV fuse feeding us from the transformer. There is a large fuseholder mounted on the pole.

"Where's the fuse" he asked? " I can't see it". So he gets on the mobile and is told that 'they left it at the base of the pole'. But it's not there. I am by this time joshing with Adam....the SPR (senior person responsible) about Life, the Universe and anything else...as is my wont. Being an ex-engineer I appreciate that cockups are planned for and one just has to accept them. Much to his relief that I am not moaning and groaning and bending his ear.

Lots of discussion, 'ifs and buts', maybe they have a spare in the van down the bottom field, maybe they don't. Maybe they might be able to force one in. I find this all very amusing, "What colour is the fuse ?" I ask. "A sort of reddy-brown" is the reply. "Bit like Herefordshire clay then " says I.

They'd buried it !! Anyway, semi-comparably physically sized fuse 'persuaded' into place...tee hee!!

Just need to keep an eye on it, I reckon as I don't think it's waterproofed any more.
 
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