ECN Forum Forums Code Related Discussion NEC & other Code issues Installation by landscape contractors!

Laborers doing this work will take short cuts and use duct tape to join or repair PVV. Stay tuned I have pictures to prove this I took last week!

If its POCO work, they fall under a different set of rules. My guess is that the work in the video is steet lighting. What ever is going on, where is the AHJ and inspectors at? It doesn't matter if its union/non union laborers doing it, what does the local rules say?

This is nothing new here in RI the excavation companies are allowed to run the the conduit but State law says you must have a licensed electrician to run the wire and do the terminmations.

All 'utility' work here is exempt from local permit & inspection. The utility companies use whichever contractors they choose, and the utility is responsible for the install/inspections.

As I said above, the wire/cable is installed by electricians, or communications techs. POCO is also allowed to install site lighting on private property, but it requires 'local' permit & inspections.

As to the union/non-union thing, that is the choice of the utility that is installing the duct/conduit. Majority around here are unionized.

Once the duct/conduit reaches the structure, it is the domain of electricians/comm contractors, requires permits and inspections.

When I was around it the service lateral was supposed to be installed and owned by the customer but they could contract FPL to put it in as an additional charge and FPL subbed that out. Most production builders had FPL do it. This is what ended up being the "two guys and a mini Kabota". They dropped a 2" RNC in the ground and pulled a triplex through it although not exactly in that order if you get my drift.
I watched a number of them and the usual sequence was they put in about 40' of RNC with the sweep up into the transformer, pushed the wire in that from the trench side, assembled the other 30-40' with the sweep up into the meter base, pushed the wire into that and mated them in the trench. That usually resulted in 10 or 20 feet of wasted triplex that went into the dumpster because the "contractor" wasn't buying the wire. One guy would dig while the other guy assembled the RNC and strung out the wire. The warning ribbon was there but not at exactly at 12". One guy fed the ribbon in the hole while the other guy was knocking the backfill in with the side of the bucket.
Hit it once, drop the ribbon, hit it again, as they went.

They were fast tho

I walked over to that job today and saw that those PVC's were installed to supply light poles in the walkway at Boston Commons, so I was not correct stating that the ribbon was required. I will find the images I took nearby by the street contractors where they used duct tape to fix a damaged underground PVC.

Joe:

No problem, we are all human! You may find that they pull triplex, or quadplex in the PVC for streetlights! That is 'common' here.

Wonder if they used 'Electricians Duct Tape'? We had that in the stores around here for a while!!

Joe,

I will second what John said. Around here the EC's Including myself) did not like the "digging" part of the job. However as someone said, the landscape guys are doing all the digging around here. They also do a lot of installing of low voltage lighting around the pools. Where the LV light is right next to the edge of the pool.

OK, got it, but will you or anyone else allow duct tape to be used to join or repair PVC? This is my real problem with the lack of truly qualified persons who will do this work. I'll bet that this, and many other jobs around the country are not even inspected. Also, using a torch to bend this wiring method is not acceptable!

Joe,

Obviously we wouldn't allow duct tape to repair PVC, but sometimes we never even get called out for an inspection and there are no permits for the job. John said that if the POCO installed lights on private property, then we get to do an inspection. I have been and AHJ now ggoing on 13 years and I don't think that I EVER did an inspection for the POCO company anywhere.

The closet I came to was years ago when the CATV people was adding transformers around the area to boast their CATV signal. For awhile I was inspecting them until the state told me to stop. It falls under Utility work, and out of my jurisdiction.