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Ask Slashdot: Resources For Identifying Telecom Right-of-Way Locations?
An anonymous reader writes "With threats to network neutrality, such as Verizon's recent lawsuit, I've been thinking of creating a map plotting all the locations where telecommunications companies currently use public lands via right-of-way laws. It seems that this would convey just how much telecommunications depends on public infrastructure. However, it's been difficult identifying where these locations are. Short of crowdsourcing, does anyone know of resources that could be used to create such a map?"
They go right to where they need !!
Sounds like the information a terrorist would be looking for -- I'd watch your cornhole, bud.
You'll have to talk to the county assessor and recorder to get the plat maps.
Some counties have online systems to download the images, most you'll have to go in in person and ask.
THL phish sticks
A while back, a PhD candidate at George Mason University collected a lot of this information from public records. He create a large database/map of all the utility routes in the US. His thesis was classified:
http://www.portlandphoenix.com/features/technophilia/documents/03028866.asp
Identify the public lands you're interested in and then go to the county government offices (recorder probably) and research easements on those properties. Many counties are starting to put that information up online. Not sure if easements on public lands would show up on tax maps but that would be a place to look as well.
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/maps/gisweb/row/
The bikini - security through obscurity since 1943
Most of the long-lines right of ways (RoWs) are along railroads, not public lands. The 2nd largest amount of RoWs crosscut underneath private property, such as underneath high-voltage electric transmission lines where the legal-infrastructure for the RoW was already in place for the electric grid.
This isn't, unfortunately for you, a 'just fucking google it' sort of project; but the data should exist in some form.
Most municipalities have, as some appendage of their government(whether zoning and planning, some independent office, some weird outgrowth of the IT shop, whatever) a GIS service of some flavor(Newark, NJ purely for example. What you can get online varies widely, and may or may not be utter shit; but it can generally put you in touch with somebody who actually knows something about the available GIS records for the area. No guarantee that they won't assume that anybody who cares about utility locations is a terrorist, or that inquiries are billed at $.25/poorly photocopied page; but it exists.
Similarly clunky; but also sometimes useful, would be the utility easement information that is(sometimes) recorded on property deeds, which are also a matter of (not necessarily well cataloged and easily searchable) public record.
Another option, in the states that they cover, would be to have a friendly chat with the folks at http://www.digsafe.com/ . This is some sort of public/private industry consortium thing designed to keep backhoes away from their natural food sources, namely fiber lines and gas mains. Since their entire purpose in life is locating vulnerable underground utility fixtures before somebody fucks them up, they should have a decent idea of where (underground only) utility lines run. I don't know how much persuading they would require to release information to somebody who doesn't fit their usual "Hi, I want to dig a big hole at 123 main St, is that a problem?" customer profile, though...
Indeed, one major telecom company is named for its railroad easements: SPRINT, the Southern Pacific Railroad Intercontinental Network of Telecommunications, although the latter 3 letters are likely :-) a backronym after Southern Pacific Communications Corporation (SPCC) changed its name to SPRINT.
Quite a while ago for work I was asked to verify where the circuits we're using come into our buildings to verify diverse entry - basically to reduce the chances of a 'backhoe day'. Even tho we were paying for the DS3s, the BEST I could get out of the major carriers was "Well, they go from your site, to (city X), to (city Y)."
The carriers just figure "It's need to know. And even tho you're paying $massive, you don't need to know."
Sorry, but this is dumb. All you need to do is call the "call before you dig" number and say you are planning on putting some very deep fenceposts all the way around the property. Within 72 hours you will have nice spray-painted, color-coded lines marking all underground utilities. Follow the lines to the building, then identify what wires are on the inside of the building for each entry point. If the telco guy shows up and only sprays one line, you know you have a problem.
I doubt very much is on public land, there isn't a whole lot of public land in populated areas.
Even if you do find some easements it wouldn't mean anything; they lease the use of that land don't they?
Lighten up, Mrs Romney.
You are welcome on my lawn.
not Dumb, but rather astute: Paint on the ground may be in a logical "best guess" location... maybe not. The telco guys just don't know! The paint is for the construction crews to tell them to be careful when they dig in that location, nothing more. Actual locations are seldom noted when constructed, and easements are often described as "along a line of poles to be constructed".
Been in the land boundary business for a few weeks short of 40 years... it ain't simple like that.
You've never called a call before you dig service then, because you really don't seem to know what you're talking about. They come out, they hook a signal generator up to the ground shielding of the cables, and they walk around with a meter to find their location and paint them on the ground. They are actually quite accurate in both location and depth.
Actually, the "call before you dig" people come out with sensors. to find the wires. "best guess" should be within a few inches of where underground wires and pipes are. They come out with metal detectors, and follow them from known locations.
For water and gas pipes, they're pretty easy, since they're metal pipes.
For copper telco and cable, they're also (obviously) metal conductors.
From something like Verizon FiOS, there is a tracer lead along the fiber that has metal, so they can be detected.
After seeing quite a few done, I know they diverge from the obvious path (the right of way), to go to the destination. I've seen lines run diagonally across yards. Sometimes they'll do "the right thing", and follow the sidewalk, then turn up the side of the driveway or adjacent to the property line. In any case, knowing if it's 6 inches or 6 feet from the driveway is kind of important if you're having new work done.
For some more expensive runs, I have seen where they'll put up empty junction boxes at intervals. Some were fairly close, like every 20 feet. Some have been more distant, like every 100 feet or so. From what I've observed, they'll put the boxes closer, where people won't complain about the aesthetics, and where it's likely someone else will come along digging.
It's fairly easy to be "careful" digging with a hand shovel. You'll hopefully notice when you hit a cable. but quite often they don't feel any worse than a small tree root. If they're digging with heavier equipment, it can be downright impossible to know if you just went through a gas line until you see the broken pipe.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Why would any of the Telcos (or anyone else) care that they're using public infrastructure? The current "free market" business model in the US it to get the government to pay for as much as you possibly can. Football teams get public money for stadiums, businesses that are "too big to fail" get handouts. Almost all companies use the public infrastructure. This model is strongly supported by both parties.