Blue and Orange pipe being laid next to road

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Kestas

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A work crew is laying blue and orange plastic pipe next to our street where I work. It's not the first time I'm seeing this type of work. What is this for?
 
Agreed, conduit that follows the APWA colour code is coloured as follows:

Red = Electrical
Orange = Telecommunications
Yellow = Natural Gas
Blue = Potable Water
Green = Sewage or Geothermal
 
Originally Posted By: Number_35
Agreed, conduit that follows the APWA colour code is coloured as follows:

Red = Electrical
Orange = Telecommunications
Yellow = Natural Gas
Blue = Potable Water
Green = Sewage or Geothermal

I've seen the local water utility and city public works still use black iron pipe for sewage.

Also, you forgot purple(really lavender) for reclaimed/non-potable water.
 
They have been laying that here too but the blue and green conduit is the same size and type as the orange fiber optic conduit. They aren't running sewer nor water pipe (those are in the road, these are on the side), I wondered too what the blue and green stuff is for.

It's like this, all the same size:

Reel-Side-Shot.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: nthach
Originally Posted By: Number_35
Agreed, conduit that follows the APWA colour code is coloured as follows:

Red = Electrical
Orange = Telecommunications
Yellow = Natural Gas
Blue = Potable Water
Green = Sewage or Geothermal

I've seen the local water utility and city public works still use black iron pipe for sewage.

Also, you forgot purple(really lavender) for reclaimed/non-potable water.

APWA Color Code

Thanks, I didn't know about the purple pipe - that's my new bit of knowledge for the day.
 
Funny you should mention that. On a recent family trip to south Florida, I noticed all kinds of crazy colored plastic pipe at roadside construction sites, including purple.
Thanks for the link above! I see it's for "reclaimed water".
 
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And odds are if its all going into a common trench that the blue and orange are both telecommuncations cables of some sort. While orange is the typically used color, there is no mandate that has has to be any particular color for install, and for an install in common trench, color coding the cables is smart so you can figure out if you are working on the right one...

Now if those cables need to be marked, they are all marked using orange paint and flags, regardless of the actual cable color.
 
Originally Posted By: MNgopher
And odds are if its all going into a common trench that the blue and orange are both telecommuncations cables of some sort. While orange is the typically used color, there is no mandate that has has to be any particular color for install, and for an install in common trench, color coding the cables is smart so you can figure out if you are working on the right one...

Now if those cables need to be marked, they are all marked using orange paint and flags, regardless of the actual cable color.


The blue could be "dark fiber" 4 years ago AT&T ran new cable route with two trenches and three orange tubes in each trench! Manholes every mile or so behind my property.

They were all orange.
 
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The backhoe is the expensive part of telecommunications. They should lay plenty of "dark fiber" to future-proof.
 
Originally Posted By: Number_35
Agreed, conduit that follows the APWA colour code is coloured as follows:

Red = Electrical
Orange = Telecommunications
Yellow = Natural Gas
Blue = Potable Water
Green = Sewage or Geothermal


Interesting... didn't know about red and green.

I have LOTS of pieces of blue and yellow... some almost 100' long.

They just trash whatever is left over after a job is done (contract fulfilled)
 
Recently around my area they are laying miles of that orange conduit. Its for fiber optic and yes I'm still on dial-up here.

Refuse to pay for satellite and cell service is a 1500 ft climb to the hill behind my barn.

Fiber optic all around me and 1800's communications at my house. So disappointing, over 20 yrs on dial-up so I stick to text only sites like BTOG.
 
Originally Posted By: Number_35
Agreed, conduit that follows the APWA colour code is coloured as follows:

Red = Electrical
Orange = Telecommunications
Yellow = Natural Gas
Blue = Potable Water
Green = Sewage or Geothermal


Those are the colors painted/used to mark the locations. NOT necessarily the color of the buried utility.

Plastic stuff is usually died for easy ID like plastic yellow gas pipe but can be black iron pipe.
 
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Originally Posted By: PSS


Plastic stuff is usually died for easy ID like plastic yellow gas pipe but can be black iron pipe.

I live in earthquake country - the local utilities have been switching over to PEX for potable water and gas distribution with pillow joints. Cheaper, inert(compared to black pipe), better for water quality and safer but not immune to a backhoe/jackhammer or other tool to breach the line.

PG&E here probably has more of an interest in gas PEX due to lawsuits from knuckleheaded welding or subpar pipe.
 
Plastic gas is used everywhere except for the big high pressure stuff.

Plastic is flexible, easy to work with and does not need cathodic protection to prevent rust.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
The backhoe is the expensive part of telecommunications. They should lay plenty of "dark fiber" to future-proof.


That is not the Dark Fiber I'm talking about. Dark fiber is where fiber is laid by a telco and it is used by some other operator.

Verizon Dark Fiber to cell tower in local telco area for example. Local telco installs and maintains fiber line, but the equipment is owned by Verizon Network and local telco cannot "lease" the line or control bandwidth. Local Telco operator is installing fiber that is not on their network, therefore it is "dark".
 
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