by ericmark »
Mon Sep 15, 2014 10:24 am
I seem to have seen these pictures before. Your not the only one who uses more than one forum.
It would seem it's not what they are which is in question but who owns them?
Not so long ago South Wales lost their gas supply due to a burst water main which managed to fill the gas pipe with water.
This will always happen where may services are run down the same road so although in theroy there should be no power to those cables they do need proving dead before removal.
I remember a story from my father-in-law who had found cables thought to be unused on a hospital job so had instructed the contractor to spike the cables then remove.
The spike is a special remote operated device which fires a spike through the cables insuring it is dead before cutting into it. Should it not be dead there would with 11 kV cables be a very large bang but since operated by remote no risk to personal.
However latter he walks through the site to find a man with a spike out of a band jack and a sledge hammer about to drive it through the cable. Clearly not a good idea if it was live he would clearly die.
This is also a problem with forums. What we have in our mind when giving instructions may not be the picture the reader gets.
That cable was not live and the guy would have been OK and in the same way we can tell you test for live and if clear rip them down and likely they will not be live and you will be OK even if your testing is completely inappropriate. However only some one who is there with the appropriate knowledge and test equipment can be 100% sure it's not running parallel to a high voltage line and has a very high induced voltage.
You know what the cables are I have read the replies you got so now it's time to employ some one to test them and remove them.
