29 June 2011

Idiots with backhoes will always be with us

| johnboy
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ACT Fire Brigade on scene at a gas leak on Hoskins Street, Mitchell.

A 50 mm gas line has been ruptured by workmen.

ACT Fire Brigade has clamped the gas leak in a trench preventing gas from dispersing.

No risk to surrounding area at this time.

11:25am Wednesday 29 June 2011

Update on gas leak at Mitchell.

ACT Fire Brigade departing the scene.

Jemena group on site to repair gas line.

11:59am Wednesday 29 June 2011

[Courtesy ESA]

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I’m also willing to bet it was not down at the correct depth either. Burdett Cres in Theodore has gas mains and phone lines running at less than 200mm depth for almost the entire length of the street. It seems nothing is where ACTEW/AGL thinks it is, and if you bring it to their attention they don’t give a toss.

What use is ‘Dial Before You Dig’ if they themselves don’t have correct information to begin with? Do they offer any kind of immunity if the information they hand out proves to be incorrect – as the case appears to be here?

It’s not actually that unusual to have services in places different from what ‘dial before you dig’ will tell you.

This may not have helped if the guy wasn’t expecting the line to be there, but do they still put down bright plastic sheet in the trench a bit above the gas line as a warning when digging?
I came across it in my nature strip when digging there one day! 🙂

JB, If there is an idiot, it is the one who installed the gas main by a shortcut through this guys block. Followed by the works surveyor who shows the pipe outside the block on dial before you dig records. Today’s backhoe man did nothing wrong.

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