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The Backhoe, The Internet's Natural Enemy

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the brace-yourself-for-impact dept.

Juha-Matti Laurio writes "Experts say last week's Sprint outage is a reminder that with all the attention paid to computer viruses and the latest Windows security holes, the most vulnerable threads in America's critical infrastructures lie literally beneath our feet. A study issued last month by the Common Ground Alliance, or CGA -- an industry group comprised of utilities and construction companies -- calculated that there were more than 675,000 excavation accidents in 2004 in which underground cables or pipelines were damaged." I estimate that one third of those accidents occured within the 5 block radius surrounding my office.

6 of 382 comments (clear)

  1. Cost?? by pvt_medic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would love to see what all these "oops" cost. Fiber optic is not exactly cheap, and it is a little more complicated than just reconnecting the severed ends. And then take network down time etc.

    --
    30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
    Score:5, Troll
    1. Re:Cost?? by Heembo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I know a guy who lives nearby who is a cut-fiber troubleshooter (and a good one). He will be chilling on the beach, his phone will ring, and he is on the next plane to (wherever). He troubleshoots the problem, extrapolates where the cut is (if they dont know already) spends the flight on the plane-phone, and get a team in action to fix the problem now. Sometime, they have no clue where the cut is and that is a big bitch when you have several hundred or thousand miles of fiber. The dude makes 400$/hr and is well known. Damn, I need a new job!

      --
      Horns are really just a broken halo.
  2. Ah, yes, Qwest did this to my home town... by _xeno_ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That reminds me of when Qwest cut all telephone lines to my home town - including 911. It made the local news, and the police chief and fire chief were both pretty pissed about it. They had to increase police patrols since no one could just call in a crime, fire, or medical emergency.

    Fortunately nothing serious happened while 911 was out.

    Then Qwest did it again, two days later, on the same line...

    Ah, telecom monopolies.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
  3. Re:Should increase liability / penalties by realmolo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At least here in Iowa, they ARE fined. It's against the law to not call for a "locate" if you are going to do ANY digging. The law applies to both businesses and individuals.

    Of course, no one ever calls. I work for a local utilities company, and lines get cut ALL the time by contruction crews. Because they almost NEVER call for a locate. It's insane.

    The few times they do call for a locate, we go out and mark the lines, and they cut them ANYWAY. Unbelievable.

  4. Re:Nothing is for certain... by lowrydr310 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Do I smell a business opportunity that utilizes a Google Maps plugin?

  5. Be thankful that you only find fibre by Gandalf_the_Beardy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Over here in Blighty I've been digging with a little mini backhoe for foundations for a greenhouse and found pipe - rusty iron about two feet down which for an 8 inch main is actually shallow. Put a crack in it, but no leakage fortunately. So we called round and Transco (gas infrastructure) reckoned it was theirs and sent a man out.

    A short period of digging later and he came out the hole at some speed looking very pale. The said "pipe" had fins on one end and was delivered 60 years ago by some Germans who failed to stop and advise my grandparents of the delivery.....