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New line under the street |
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| FTLComm - Tisdale - Tuesday, August 27, 2002 | ||||||
 This morning a crew contracted by SaskTel set to work installing a new telephone cable under the street between the Co-op and St. Paul's United Church. The hundred pair line (about the size of a finger) had developed some connection problem often caused by a splice that the water tight covering breaks down and the splice begins to short. Since this is a vital line to both the Saskatchewan Government Farm service centre and the |
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 Beeland Co-op, SaskTel installed a new line on the poles to the site so that they would switch each line over one at a time without disrupting service. The man above is calibrating the sensing device used to monitor the movement of the drilling tool when it is moving under the street. The automated drilling machine uses a complex drill bit which includes a sensing transponder so that it can be tracked from the surface during the drilling process. Drilling mud is pumped into the hole producing a smooth lining down the bored hole and by stopping rotation the driller can move the head forward and aim it to produce incourse corrections. The machine, estimated at a value of more than $100,000 automatically feeds in another length of pipe as each one disappears down the line. |
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 Meanwhile across the street the arrow points to the pedestal where the new line will be connected. But before the drill head gets to that point it must cross a buried gas line. To accomplish this task it was necessary to drill a small hole down to the gas line and allow the crew to visually see that the drill does not come into contact with the gas line. The small hole down to the gas line is begun with a simple jackhammer used to removed the surface pavement then a very high pressure water jet is used (below) to cut out the material in the hole and a large suction line vacuums the slurry into a tank on the large truck. This allows a safe penetration to the gas line without fear of damaging it or the coating on that line while at the same time creating the least possible disturbance to the street surface. By 11:00 this morning the job was complete and best of all no bump on the street to be repaired. |
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