ECN Forum Forums Code Related Discussion NEC & other Code issues Parking Lot Pipe

OK, here are the pics, as promised.

I have sometimes wondered about 300.5 - what if, I wondered, you simply laid the pipe in a shallow trough? Since it's not buried, you can't apply burial depth rules. But, would the sides and bottom of the trough meet support requirements? Would the pipe be sufficiently protected?

So, when I saw this the other evening, I thought I had encountered such an installation. Look it over:


(The white vee's point to the trough)

From the end:



Let's look at this as if it were a proper installation. Looking at the entire pipe run, including the parts more distant, convinced me that this was NOT a careful exploitation of a code technicality.