The Route Is Giving You Clues

A beginnerâs guide to reading the utilities, crossings, and conditions already along the route.

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When you look down the side of a road and see a wide strip of grass, it can look like a pretty easy place to build fiber.

There may be plenty of room for the drill. No trees are directly in the way, and there aren’t any big structures blocking the path. From the surface, the route looks open.

The problem is that we’re planning to build underground, and most of the things we need to work around are underground too.

Look beyond the strip of grass.

There is a gas meter on the house. A water meter is near the road. A fire hydrant is at the corner. A green transformer sits between two properties. There is a sewer manhole in the street, a storm inlet beside the curb and a telecom pedestal farther down the road.

Something feeds the gas meter. Water has to reach the hydrant. Electrical facilities may enter and leave the transformer. Pipes connect to the sewer manhole and storm inlet. Communications facilities connect to the pedestal.

Learning how to read these clues won’t tell you exactly where a utility is buried. It won’t tell you its depth, and it doesn’t replace utility records, locates, potholing, daylighting or any of the damage-prevention requirements for the project.

It does help you understand what may be happening around the route.

That starts with understanding how these systems work.

Start With Two Directions

When you’re thinking about other utilities and your proposed fiber route, there are two basic directions worth understanding.

What could be running with us, and what could be running across us?

A gas main, water main, sewer, electric facility or existing telecom pathway may run in the same general direction as our proposed fiber. We call that running parallel.

Other facilities may pass across our proposed pathway. We call those crossings.

Customer services add another piece. A utility main may run parallel with our fiber while individual services branch away from it and cross our route on their way to homes and businesses.

This is one reason an open stretch of grass can become complicated underground. We may have facilities running with us and other facilities repeatedly crossing us.

Keep those two directions in mind as we look at the different utilities.

First, Understand a Main and a Service

There are two basic ideas that will make several utility systems easier to understand.

A main is part of the larger system serving an area. A water main distributes water. A gas main distributes gas. A sanitary sewer main collects wastewater.

A service connects an individual customer or property to the larger system. The exact name can change depending on the utility. For example, the connection from a building into a sanitary sewer is often called a lateral.

Picture a residential street.

A gas main may run through the area. Each house receiving gas needs a connection to that system. Those individual services branch away from the larger system toward the customers.

The same basic idea can apply to water. There is a larger distribution system, then individual services supplying properties.

For fiber routing, we need to think about both.

The larger facility may run with our proposed fiber route. Individual services may cross it over and over again.

Don’t Draw Straight Lines in Your Head

There is an important habit to avoid before we go any farther.

If you see a gas meter on a house, don’t draw an imaginary straight line from the meter to the road and decide that must be where the gas service runs.

The same applies to water meters, electric meters, pedestals, buildings and other equipment.

Underground facilities were installed at different times and under different conditions. Existing structures, utilities, property layouts, construction methods and previous changes can all affect where a facility was actually placed.

A service might approach a building from a direction you didn’t expect. It may bend. The source feeding it may not be where you assumed it was. Older infrastructure may have been installed before the property looked the way it does today.

What you see above ground starts the question. It doesn’t answer it.

The actual facility needs to be identified through the proper records, locating and verification process required for the project.

Natural Gas

A gas meter is one of the easiest clues to recognize.

The meter measures the amount of natural gas being used by the customer. Depending on the system, you may also see a regulator and exposed piping around the meter.

The useful question for us is: How does gas get to that meter?

The meter is part of a larger system. Somewhere there is a gas distribution system serving the area, and a service connects the customer to it.

Imagine ten houses along one side of a road. If all ten have gas service, there are connections between those customers and the gas system. Depending on the actual layout, some of those services may cross the area where we’re considering placing fiber.

Now think about the main. If the gas main runs along the same side of the road where we want our fiber, we may also have a utility running parallel with our proposed pathway.

We now have both directions to think about. The main may run with us while the services may cross us.

What Else Can We See?

Meters aren’t the only gas clues.

Pipeline markers can tell us a pipeline is present in the area and usually identify the operator. Valve boxes, regulators and other gas equipment can provide additional clues about the system.

Once utility locating has taken place, markings provide additional information that must be handled according to the project’s requirements.

Suppose we’re deciding which side of a road makes more sense for our fiber. One side has repeated gas services, several gas structures and other utilities. The other side has a different set of conditions.

That doesn’t automatically tell us which side to choose. It gives us information we need when comparing the two.

A route isn’t good just because there is grass available. We need to understand what already occupies the space.

Water

Water works in a way that should now feel somewhat familiar.

A water main distributes water through an area. Individual water services connect customers to that system.

Several pieces of the water system can give us clues from the surface.

Water Meters

A water meter measures the amount of water being supplied to a customer.

Depending on the area, you may see the meter inside a box or pit near the road, sidewalk or property.

Seeing a meter tells you the property is connected to a water system.

If there are twenty water meters along the route, there may be twenty individual customer connections associated with those properties.

Think about our two directions again.

The water main may run generally with our fiber. Depending on the actual layout, individual water services may branch away from that main and cross the area where we’re considering placing conduit.

One water service creates one location to understand. A neighborhood full of services can create the same question repeatedly.

Fire Hydrants

A fire hydrant needs a water supply capable of providing water for firefighting.

The hydrant is only the part of the system we can see.

Underground infrastructure connects it to the water system. If you see hydrants continuing through an area, you are seeing visible pieces associated with that larger system.

Don’t draw a line between two hydrants and decide that is where the water main runs. The actual layout needs to come from the proper information and verification.

The hydrants simply tell us that water infrastructure is present and needs to be part of our route planning.

Water Valves

Water systems need ways to control flow and isolate portions of the system for maintenance and repairs.

Valves provide that control.

From the surface, you may see a valve box or cover providing access to the valve below. That small cover can be one of the few visible signs that piping occupies the area underneath you.

Now put the pieces together.

You see hydrants, water meters and valve boxes along the same street. Instead of treating them as unrelated objects, start thinking about the system connecting them.

There is water distribution through the area. Customers connect to it. Hydrants connect to it. Valves allow parts of it to be controlled.

Our job is to understand where that system actually interacts with the pathway we’re considering for fiber.

Sanitary Sewer

Sanitary sewer needs a little more explanation because it doesn’t work exactly like gas or water.

A sanitary sewer system carries wastewater away from homes and businesses. Toilets, sinks, showers and other plumbing fixtures eventually discharge into this system where public sewer is available.

A larger sewer pipe collects wastewater through an area. Individual properties commonly connect through pipes called laterals or service laterals.

That gives us a larger system and individual connections again.

Gravity Matters

Many sanitary sewer systems rely on gravity.

Wastewater has to flow through the pipe, so the pipe is installed with slope.

For someone building fiber, that matters because the sewer’s elevation is part of how the system works. As the sewer travels through an area, its depth can change. Ground elevation can change too. Other sewer lines may connect into it, and the network may change direction.

A sewer encountered at one depth somewhere along the project does not tell you what its depth will be at another crossing.

That is an important beginner lesson.

Seeing the same utility somewhere else does not mean you already understand the condition in front of you.

The actual location and depth at the point where our work interacts with it need to be understood according to the project’s requirements.

Sewer Manholes

A sewer manhole provides access to the underground sewer system for inspection, cleaning and maintenance.

Manholes may be located where access is needed along the system, including around changes in direction, connections and other locations required by the sewer design.

If you see a manhole at one intersection and another farther down the street, you’re seeing access points into an underground network.

You still don’t know the exact pipe alignment or depth between them just from standing on the surface.

What you know is that a sewer system occupies the area.

Sewer Cleanouts

A cleanout is an access point used for cleaning and maintaining sewer or drain piping.

You may see a capped pipe near a house, building or elsewhere on a property.

A cleanout can provide another clue that a lateral or other piping is associated with the property.

Now think about our fiber route.

If the sewer main and the building it serves are on opposite sides of our proposed pathway, there may be a lateral crossing the area where we want to build. The actual path needs to be verified, but the surface has given us a reason to investigate.

Storm Drainage

Sanitary sewer carries wastewater. Storm drainage handles rainwater and surface runoff.

When rain hits a road, parking lot or other surface, water follows the grade of the ground. It travels toward lower areas, gutters, ditches and drainage structures.

Once water enters a drainage structure, it still has to go somewhere.

Storm Inlets

A storm inlet is a place where surface water enters a drainage system.

You often see them along curbs and in low areas.

The opening you see is only the beginning. Water entering there may travel through underground pipe toward another structure, a ditch, detention area, outfall or another part of the storm system.

For our route, the underground pipe may matter much more than the small opening visible at the curb.

A fiber pathway following the road may run parallel with storm pipe. A road or driveway crossing may cross it.

The same two directions keep showing up.

Catch Basins

A catch basin receives stormwater and can provide space for sediment and debris to settle before water continues through the drainage system.

Pipes can enter and leave these structures.

That means a structure sitting beside the road can have underground infrastructure extending away from it in directions that aren’t obvious from the surface.

Culverts

A culvert carries water underneath something such as a driveway or road.

You may see the open ends of the pipe on either side of a driveway or a larger drainage structure underneath a road.

The culvert tells us there is already a physical structure occupying underground space at the crossing.

It also tells us water is supposed to move through that area.

That second part matters because our construction can affect drainage too.

Excavation, backfill, handhole placement and restoration can change the shape of the ground. If we create a low spot, block an existing drainage path or place a structure where water naturally collects, we may create a problem that wasn’t there before.

So when you see drainage infrastructure, understand both parts of the situation: what infrastructure occupies the ground and where the water is trying to go.

Electric

Electric can look different from one neighborhood to another.

Some systems are aerial. Some are underground. Many areas have a combination of both.

That makes the equipment above ground especially useful when you’re learning how to read a route.

Transformers

A transformer changes electrical voltage so electricity can be distributed and used.

In areas with underground electric, you may see pad-mounted transformers. These are commonly the green cabinets sitting on pads in neighborhoods and commercial developments.

A beginner may see the green cabinet and think the obstacle is the cabinet itself.

The bigger concern for routing is everything connected to it.

Electrical facilities feed the transformer. Other electrical facilities can leave it and continue toward customers or other parts of the electrical system.

That means one visible transformer can have underground electric extending away from it in multiple directions.

Primary and Secondary

You may hear electric crews use the words primary and secondary.

For our purposes, primary is the higher-voltage distribution side feeding the transformer. The transformer changes the voltage, and secondary facilities carry the transformed voltage toward customers or other points in the system.

You don’t need to know how to design an electrical network to build fiber.

You do need to understand why a transformer may have more than one underground facility around it.

That is why simply staying away from the green cabinet doesn’t mean you’ve understood the electric in that area.

Electric Meters

An electric meter measures the electricity used by a customer.

When you see one, look at how the property appears to be served.

An overhead wire running from a utility pole to the building gives you a visible clue that the service is aerial.

If you don’t see an aerial service and the area has underground electric infrastructure, there may be an underground connection serving the property.

You still need to determine the actual configuration. The meter gives you a reason to ask.

Pole Risers

A riser is where a utility facility runs vertically along a pole as part of a transition between aerial and underground infrastructure.

If you see facilities coming down a pole and disappearing into the ground, the important question is what happens after they disappear.

That area deserves attention if our bore, handhole or pathway is planned nearby because the underground facility continues beyond the part we can see.

Existing Communications

Our fiber is often being installed in an area that already has communications infrastructure.

Existing telephone, cable television, fiber and other communication systems may be aerial, underground or a combination of both.

Underground communications may be installed inside conduit or directly in the ground, depending on the system.

That means existing telecom can occupy the same space we’re trying to use.

Pedestals

A telecom pedestal is an above-ground enclosure providing access to communications facilities and connections.

Facilities enter the pedestal and may leave in several directions depending on the network.

The pedestal is what you see. The pathways connecting it to the rest of the network are what matter to our route.

Handholes and Vaults

A handhole is an underground access structure with a removable lid. A vault serves a similar purpose but is generally larger.

These structures provide access to underground facilities without excavating the entire pathway.

When you see one, think about what may enter and leave it. Conduit or cable may continue along the road, cross the road, feed a property or connect to another part of the network.

Cabinets

A communications cabinet can contain equipment, connections or distribution components.

Depending on its purpose, multiple pathways may enter or leave the cabinet.

The visible cabinet may occupy a few feet of ground while the facilities connected to it extend much farther into the area around it.

Aerial-to-Underground Communications

Communications facilities can also transition from aerial to underground at utility poles.

If you see conduit or cable running down a pole and disappearing into the ground, something continues from that point.

That transition should become part of how you think about the proposed fiber route around the pole.

Private Utilities

Public utilities aren’t everything that can be underground.

Properties can contain private utilities, meaning facilities owned or maintained on the private side rather than being part of a utility company’s public distribution system.

These deserve attention because their routes may be based on the needs of the individual property.

Irrigation

Sprinkler heads are only the visible part of an irrigation system.

Underground there may be water piping, control valves and wiring connecting everything together. Irrigation controllers, valve boxes, backflow equipment and sprinkler heads can all give you clues that more exists below the surface.

A landscaped area can look like a perfect place for fiber while having irrigation spread throughout it.

Parking Lot and Landscape Lighting

Every powered light needs an electrical connection.

If a parking lot light has no aerial wire feeding it, ask how the power reaches it. A parking lot with several light poles may have underground electrical facilities connecting them back to a power source.

Landscape lighting can add more buried wiring around sidewalks, buildings and landscaped areas.

Gates, Cameras and Access Control

An automatic gate can need power and may also have a keypad, card reader, intercom, loop detector, camera or communications connection.

Security cameras need power, communications or both.

A driveway entrance can therefore contain several private facilities even though the pavement itself gives you very little indication of what is underneath it.

Signs

An illuminated sign needs power. A digital sign may need power and communications.

When you see a monument sign near the road, don’t only think about avoiding the concrete base. Think about what feeds the sign and where that connection originates.

Detached Buildings

A garage, shop, maintenance building, guard shack or other detached structure may have electric, water, gas, sewer or communications serving it.

The building itself gives you a reason to ask what connects to it.

Private utilities make the same basic lesson even more important: the route that looks open from the surface may already have several systems passing through it.

What Does All of This Mean for Our Fiber Route?

Knowing the names of utilities isn’t enough. We need to understand how they interact with the pathway we’re trying to build.

We already introduced the two easiest relationships: running with us and running across us.

There are a few more ideas that help put the route together.

Parallel Utilities

When another utility runs in generally the same direction as our proposed fiber pathway, it is running parallel with us.

Imagine a gas main running down the same side of the road where we plan to install fiber. We could be following that facility for hundreds or thousands of feet.

The available underground space isn’t unlimited. Our fiber needs a workable pathway that meets the project’s depth, separation, ROW, easement and other requirements.

As more infrastructure occupies the corridor, understanding exactly what is there becomes more important.

Crossings

A crossing occurs where our proposed pathway passes across another facility.

The important thing to understand is that two underground systems now need to pass through the same general area.

Their actual locations, elevations and required separation need to be understood according to the project requirements before the work is performed.

Service Crossings

Services can create a lot of crossings without being obvious from the road.

Imagine our fiber route follows the front of thirty houses. The larger gas, water, electric or communications facilities may run along the neighborhood, while individual connections branch toward customers.

That can create repeated interactions with our pathway.

This is why looking at the buildings and properties along the route matters just as much as looking straight down the road.

Congestion

Congestion means several facilities are occupying a limited amount of underground space.

A congested area might have gas, water, electric, communications, sewer and drainage all using the same general corridor.

That doesn’t automatically make the area impossible to build through. It tells us that the simple-looking route on the surface may require much more understanding underneath it.

Conflict Points

A conflict point is a location where our proposed pathway and existing infrastructure need closer attention.

It could be a utility crossing, an area where we’re running close and parallel with another facility, a group of service crossings or an area around a transformer, manhole, culvert, pole or cabinet.

Finding those areas during planning gives us an opportunity to understand them before construction reaches them.

Why One Side of the Road Can Be Different From the Other

A route on a map can make both sides of a road look almost identical.

Walking it can tell a different story.

One side may have a gas main, repeated water services and underground electric. The other side may have drainage structures, existing telecom, poles, trees or less available ROW.

The useful question isn’t simply which side looks easier.

Ask what we would have to work through on each side.

One route may create repeated utility crossings. Another may require additional road crossings. One side may have more underground congestion, while the other may create drainage, access or property issues.

The shortest line on the map isn’t automatically the simplest path to construct.

The conditions attached to that line matter.

Why Intersections Deserve Extra Attention

Intersections can bring several systems together in a relatively small area.

Water mains may continue through the intersection or branch. Gas facilities may cross the road. Sewer may change direction or connect through manholes. Storm drainage collects runoff from multiple directions. Electric and communications may cross, branch or transition between aerial and underground.

Our fiber may also need to pass through that same area.

When you reach an intersection during a route walk, look beyond the strip of ground you have been following. Look at all of the corners and identify the manholes, hydrants, valves, inlets, cabinets, pedestals, poles and other infrastructure around the intersection.

Those visible pieces can help you recognize that the next hundred feet may require more investigation than the previous hundred.

Understand the ROW and Easements

Two other terms beginners should understand are right-of-way and easement.

A right-of-way, often shortened to ROW, is an area associated with a road or other transportation corridor where certain infrastructure and utilities may be located, depending on ownership, jurisdiction and the rights that have been granted.

An easement gives specific rights to use a portion of property for a particular purpose. A utility easement may allow certain utilities to install, access and maintain facilities within that area.

Open ground doesn’t automatically mean we have the right to place fiber there, and existing utilities don’t necessarily share the same easement.

The approved route, permits, easements, ROW information and engineering requirements determine where construction is allowed. The route walk helps us understand the physical conditions we will encounter within those limits.

Now Walk the Whole Street

Imagine we are walking a residential street before construction.

At the first intersection, there is a sewer manhole in the pavement and a storm inlet beside the curb. We now know sanitary sewer and storm drainage are part of the area.

Farther down, we find a fire hydrant and water meter boxes in front of several houses. Now we’re thinking about the water distribution system and individual customer services.

Gas meters are mounted on the houses, which adds the gas distribution system and its services to the picture.

A green transformer sits between two properties. We look at the houses and don’t see obvious overhead electric services, so the underground electric system deserves our attention.

Across the road is a telecom pedestal. Existing communications are using this corridor too.

At the next intersection, conduit comes down a utility pole and disappears underground. Now there is an aerial-to-underground transition to understand.

The route eventually enters a commercial area where we see parking lot lights, irrigation, cameras, an automatic gate and an illuminated sign. Private facilities now become part of what we need to consider.

The grass never stopped looking open.

Our understanding of what may be underneath it changed.

We can now see places where utilities may run with us, places where services may cross us, areas that may be congested and locations where several systems come together.

We still don’t know exactly where everything is. That information comes from the actual utility records, locating, verification and construction process.

What we gained from walking the route is knowing where we need answers.

Read the Route Before You Build It

When you walk a proposed fiber route, start by identifying what you can actually see and understanding what each piece of infrastructure does. Think about the larger system connected to it, then consider whether that system could run with your fiber, cross your fiber or create a more congested area along the proposed pathway.

Use those observations to determine where more information is needed. The project’s records, locates, potholing, daylighting, engineering requirements and damage-prevention process are what establish the actual conditions you have to build around.

The surface is giving you clues about where to look.

Once you understand what those clues mean, an empty strip of grass stops looking empty. You start seeing the route you’re actually going to have to build.

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