Main electrical line hit during excavation

11 years ago

My husband and I began construction on our swimming pool on May 1. Prior to excavation, a utility locator was dispatched to our property to locate all service lines. He came and sprayed in lines not ONCE....but TWICE. On the day of excavation, the excavator unearthed our main electrical line. The utility locator says he does not contract to locate for Center Point, therefore he does not speay in their lines. Center Point, of course, says WE own the line not them and therefore, THEY are not responsible. Our line runs straight through the middle of our yard diagonally from the northeast corner of the house to the northwest corner if the back if the yard...approximately 1000 feet in length. The survey indicates (our home will be two years old in August) that the utility easement runs along our wood fence from the back of the house, then alongside the fence across the back of the yard. The builder did not follow the easement and chose the cheapest route. Additionally, during the reroute, we discovered our main line is aluminum....which the builder also failed to disclose. Thankfully no one was injured. I grow WEARY of listening to these folks point the finger at each other and no one wants to accept responsibilty. When a main electrical line does not follow the utility easement and I understand it doesn't have to...is the builder under a duty to advise the location of the line so as to warn of a dangerous potentially life threatening situation? Must they have also notified of the aluminum wiring? Who is responsible for this? Ugh! I am SO aggravated! Thanks for your help!

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Comments (6)

golfgeek
11 years ago
tfisher,
Usually, the utiity company locates the service up to the meter. I assume you are talking about the service after the meter that was hit. The easements are used for the main lines servicing the entire neighbor hood that happen to go thru your property.
Alluminum is not a problem if properly installed. The connections are the area that can be troublesome if not secured correctly.
poolguynj
11 years ago
Your lines are your responsibility to have marked, just as your septic is.

Utility owned lines are what Dig Safe and other similar programs are about. They pay for that service.

Scott
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ktm250sx
9 years ago
Old thread but we just had the same thing happen. We called twice for lines to be marked and we were given the "all clear" by the electrical company. Electrical line ran diagonally across back yard and line was hit but not severed. Why is responsible? Builder, 811, e;electrical company? We have a 7 foot utility easement which is where all utilities are located except the electrical.
WPCNORTE14
9 years ago
Your pool builder let you down if he did not inform you that the electrical service line which runs from the main electrical transformer to the electric meter on your home would not be marked by the 811 locators. That line is not owned by the power company. It is considered your property and requires an independent contractor to come mark that line. Most quality pool builders would have told you that and most builders have that line marked ( at your expense as part of the contract amount) to avoid costly reroutes when possible and most importantly to avoid injury to the excavators.
You are responsible for their actions unfortunately.
ktm250sx
9 years ago
Thanks, we figured it all out and we were also told by the home builder, DRHorton that it was not in the area of the pool build since it's a new home that we had built. Just another lie by DRHorton which has been the worst company I have ever dealt with in my entire life but that's a whole other story. We informed them we were putting in a pool and assured that it would not be an issue.

Same thing happened to a friend of mine and the pool builder has been in business for over 25 years, not sure how this happened but it did.
WPCNORTE14
9 years ago
Home builders don't care unless it affects them or their pocketbook. They will always run the utilities the shortest route to save a dollar. The fact that the pool builders in both cases didn't get the service line marked is just negligent and is inexcusable. Sounds like a reroute would have been required in your case but that should have been done prior to starting construction.
Just a bad building practice. Be glad nobody got hurt, nothing blew up, and no fires got started. Hope the rest of the project goes better than the start. Good luck.