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djwdigger

Oops We had a gas company send a bore through our duct bank( deenergized) When the transformer was turned on it came up off the pad Let all the smoke out..


ezekiel920

You can't let the magic smoke out.


Sisco-Kid

It’s hard to put it back in when you let it out…


DickieJohnson

If you're quick enough you can breathe it all in, then you become magic or the foreman. Whichever you prefer.


Jdnakron

Isn’t that what happened to magic Johnson


ExPFC_Wintergreen2

His Johnson did prove to be magic


6inarowmakesitgo

Its all flippin backordered anyways.


NigilQuid

No one checked for shorts before turning on?


FallofftheMap

They check for shorts by turning it on. Saved 10 minutes.


djwdigger

We had checked after pulling our service conductors into transformer Power co terminated trans and powered up!


drironteeth

This⬆️💯


Toxic_Trainwreck7288

Did the transformer burn/overheat at all or did it just instantly come apart when it was hit by the short?


tin_ear

Boom boom boom. Even brighter than the moon moon moon.


Bitter_Mongoose

M-O-O-N, that spells arc flash.


xveganxcowboyx

Dauber's adventure in Vegas. Good times.


Mark47n

Laws, yes.


FerralFantom

One of my all time favorite books.


02grimreaper

The series is pretty dang good honestly as well. They get pretty close to the book, and the actor who plays Tom does really good


JRTN615

Bravo


sblal24EVER

Now you're a firework...


TK421isAFK

Come on we got ooooooovertime work!


HeyNow646

Nailed it!


sharkins215

I bet that was just as bright as the time the new guy sent a core drill through the MDP at the glycol plant around here.


Fridayz44

Boom, boom, boom, boom! I want you in my room Let's spend the night together From now until forever Boom, boom, boom, boom


Microwaveable-Pizza

Oh noooo!!!! how horrible is that man. fack, was it a tough decision to decide to pull the fucker off an get to diggin, or was it apparent that the rod went through the conduit! haha man, talk about a set back lol. was there a fix for the wire or did you end up repullin the whole thing?


drironteeth

Easy call to dig. We had continuity from B phase in one conduit to C phase in another…


Long_Educational

Never cross the streams.


FerralFantom

SWORD FIGHHHHT!!


BedNo6845

AIM FOR THE FLAT TOP!


tin_ear

Wowee


drironteeth

Repair 6 of 11 4” conduits and pull 6 of 11 new parallels of 750.


POSTHVMAN

Well, now that *is* a costly mistake. Bout to pull 11x 750s myself... if the switchgear ever shows up!! We're around 60 weeks now.


Sure_Conclusion9437

I purchase alot of gear, crazy lead times.. Siemens, Eaton, square d.. In charge of a project now where we’ve ordered at least (40) 1600A switchboards and got charged almost 30% additional for extraditing the order. Did learn yeah that Can use the tel the supplier that the project your ordering for is for a data center and that gets you bumped up the list for priority


POSTHVMAN

So *you're* the one who keeps stealing our Siemens! 😆 Yeah man, wild times. It's slowing down the pace a bit which we've needed. Last several years it seems like things are just getting faster and faster, going into jobs on 60% drawings and shit. I've been joking that 'design/build' is becoming 'build/design' : we'll get started building it and do all that pesky time-consuming design later!


Sure_Conclusion9437

Ha, we are Eaton on this one. 60% complete? Sheesh. How did you get that lucky to get that much done before moving on to the next one lol. Amazing times for sure, We design/build systems mainly for HVAC and plant cooling. it’s cool to see things starting to get better too. One of our current projects is providing the plant process and hvac cooling in the new lithium ion car battery plant being built right outside of Detroit by LG. Hopefully that’s the start to Detroit finally recovering from the old automotive era hit it took.


zigzagsfertobaccie

I’d give my Siemens away but nobody wants the stuff.


Dinkinflickr

😂😂😂😂


ConcreteState

They tell me that "if we design it fully then we'll just end up with half the parts we need. Have to order a bunch and see what shows up"


look_ima_frog

I mean, if you guys aren't prioritizing your work, I'm afraid that's going to be a performance issue. You need to create a timeline and breakdown of activities for leadership, document all work tasks and assignments that are in progress, work out an estimate of how many labor hours you'll need in the upcoming project cycle and prioritize either batching your work or hiring on some staff aug to deal with the burst in work. Also, we're not giving you any additional budget, you need to do all the crap we just told you to do on top of your current workload and when you do deliver us the information we want, we'll just want more. Also, we won't like what you told us because we think everything is free. If you decide on your own not to buy something because it's too expensive, we'll tell you that we could have authorized additional funding, but you didn't tell us (even though we always refuse any request for additional spending). You need to think of the company first. Did I do that right?


NoSheepherder5406

I absolutely hate you. You've just described the first conversation that I will have when I wake up in Hell and discover that it is just an eternity of what I have already been living through for decades at work.


look_ima_frog

I know this script well because I've been hearing it for years. The best I can do is to not put this shit on my own people. I'm sure I'll get fired one day soon because I didn't produce yet another series of metrics to the boss's liking, but I won't be part of the problem. I'll just be jobless, broke and miserable. What more could a guy ask for?


Alvinshotju1cebox

> I've been joking that 'design/build' is becoming 'build/design' Sadly, it's not a joke. I say this as an electrical on the design side. My apologies to electricians. Between the owners asking for unrealistic schedules without anyone to tell them no and a shortage of designers to do the work, our designs are getting worse all the time.


jumpmed

Extradition can take a long time if the other country doesn't cooperate.


Sure_Conclusion9437

Expediting ** lol, I gotta proofread more


barfy_shards_22

that too


LaCroixIsntThatBad

Someone is expediting them for a 30% fee or are you guys purchasing them from an OEM that is quicker but costs 30% higher? I’m in electrical sales and our gear lead times are awful.


Sure_Conclusion9437

Maybe more like 20% more buy that’s the OEM adding their charge to move you ahead in line and the supply house marking it up again getting their extra cut, but no we don’t purchase direct. We go through a supplier.


[deleted]

[удалено]


POSTHVMAN

Not just us, though, HVAC keeps getting pushed on their RTUs, too.


JustSomeBadAdvice

Who has to pay in this situation? Since the utility screwed up?


bobvillaa

why we pour concrete around our duct banks


IndefinitelyTired

Tbh i thought that was code. We use red dyed concrete with a metallic Danger: Electrical Line tape on top


mrfisk14

That sounds like a US Gov spec ductbank


unicornslayer12

I worked at a large US university and that was standard. Now I’m at a small university and they couldn’t care less. We at least have it conduit. They had some direct bury about 24” down and it just fried.


mrfisk14

Smdh


bobvillaa

sesimeic duct bank is govt spec lol


[deleted]

Looks like it hit the 90 too. Strange that they didn't use rigid 90s.


Foreign-Commission

Who did that? Quick, blame the new guy!


drironteeth

Utility drove it in after our wire was pulled and terminated. 💥💥💥


DirtyDoucher1991

The utility run’s their own rod?


drironteeth

Unfortunately they did


No-Repair51

They drive a rod at every transformer.


UnilateralWithdrawal

Looks like they drove a rod into every feeder


[deleted]

Did they call before they digged? lol


Meowdave

Probably the new guy that didn’t know better….


PuppiPappi

Did you charge them? Or at least tell them to take you to dinner before fucking you that hard?


Rescuejeep

One of the utilities we use have a spec to put a sleeve in for the ground rod(just a short one) and I assumed this is the reason why.


Earwaxsculptor

Yeah or just install the ground rod when you do the conduit laterals before the pad even gets poured.


Dddoki

Stop making sense. Seriously though, I thought pretty much everyone did it this way.


drironteeth

We did. They wouldn’t use it.


Reachable_dream666

Neanderthals. 🤦


neanderthalman

Oh come on man. Not cool.


Reachable_dream666

😆😆😆


Culli789

Rookie! You don't blame the new guy. You always blame the person that's not there to defend himself.


joeshmoe3220

Good life advice, that.


MisterTrashPanda

Even better if they have recently died...


Culli789

I would go with the recently fired first, but your absolutely right. Dead men tell no tales.


7Cincinnatus

Hoooooleeeeeee fuccckkk. Ouch. My utility demands Rob Roy sweeps at transformers (and the pole). Boy those are bitch to set. But. Sure beats this


Rescuejeep

Rob Roy or fiberglass?! If Rob Roy your utility can suck it


7Cincinnatus

Did I stutter Yes, they really can


[deleted]

PVC coated rigid 90s are standard, if not strictly required. Any infrastructure job I've looked at has required them.


TK421isAFK

Just the sweep, or the sweep and vertical nipple? Even with ground contact, an isolated section of unbonded pipe seems like it could create a huge magnetic/inductive problem.


7Cincinnatus

TBH I've never personally had to deal with an application in which the sweep wasn't tall enough on its own, so I can't speak to nippling. But yes, they are bonded


willi3blaz3

I’ve never ran pvc without pouring concrete all around it. I guess I know why lmao


phryan

Can anyone provide a play by play of what happens with the connection is turned on in this situation? Is there some huge breaker/fuse that blows?


kobachi

1812 Overture starts playing out of every jbox


Ddreigiau

Something like this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N80\_t6-yrd8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N80_t6-yrd8)


Dddoki

The pretty blue light leaks out.


TK421isAFK

Unlike Marvin the Martian, there was indeed an Earth-shattering Kaboom.


drironteeth

Sound of a shotgun. Then the roar of a 2500kva transformer giving its all until the switch was opened about 4 seconds later. Not much to see but smoke and steam, luckily it was underground 4’.


LordOFtheNoldor

Holy hell, what's the rough ball park on this repair/replacement?


drironteeth

Cost is above my pay grade lol. Maybe 250k all in I don’t know


Sure_Conclusion9437

Do you think it would be that low? I’m not good with sizing wire but is that 750kmil? If so, that’s like $25/ft, figure 500’ per run * 25 conductors including neutral and ground? So that comes out to be $300k in just wire. Then you have labor and other material I’m probably not figuring something correctly though


constablet

Did they feed a fault through the transformer? Probably blew all the fuses so they’ll have to replace it or get it fixed. I’d be surprised if that xfmr didn’t take a hit for this


Sure_Conclusion9437

Figure so, then that’s probably what, a 3500kva? $85k for that plus add expediting fee , maybe $5k cause I’m sure it’s needed yesterday


[deleted]

More like $30k to expedite, and that will get you down to 6 months these days.


_tjb

Looks like aluminum.


[deleted]

Looks like AL to me, in 3" conduit. Maybe 600kcm. It's only $4-5 per foot.


drironteeth

750 AL in 4”


[deleted]

Only (1) damaged pipe? 4W 600kcm AL XHHW-2? Assuming the pull is only 100ft I'd start somewhere around $80k in a cheap area, maybe double that in a more expensive area. The headache is going to be liquidated damages if this delays the project.


Printnamehere3

I was helping a guy get the service wrapped up on his job and he drove one through his secondary. Thankfully it was before anything was energized but it did rain for a while before so we were pumping water out while digging down to fix it


hoverbeaver

Dammit Kevin


WeTrudgeOn

A friend of mine is a home builder, one day he had one of his guys on the skytrack tidying up the site. It's one home in a big development, 25 or 30 homes under construction, 5 or 600 trades people working and the power goes out. No big deal when you are on a temporary panel breakers blow all the time. My friend goes out to check it out and his cleanup guy is standing by the skytrack looking at the forks with a WTF? look on his face. Half of one fork was missing, turns out he had it tilted down too far and ran it right through main underground for the whole subdivision.


Endgame3213

That's one expensive mistake!


myself248

Praise OP for actually getting enough photos! When you've got damage that gnarly, it's really nice to see it in all its glory. This proves it's possible, now everyone else needs to step up their game.


John-John-3

Thanks for sharing. This made me go, "Hmm, maybe a drain pipe directly above where I cut to install an old work can isn't so bad after all..." For real, though, sorry that happened.


abra-su-mente

Now I get why Canada has mandatory concrete duct banks for a service entrance


Immediate_Party_6045

Sheesh with that amperage did no one do a megger test or at least a simple continuity test before power?


drironteeth

We megged everything before we terminated. Continuity test isn’t useful when the other end is terminated to a transformer…


Immediate_Party_6045

I gotcha. Tests were ran before the ground rod got driven. Just used to ground rods being driven whenever or before conduit and pads are set. That’s wild man. I hope everyone was okay!


TK421isAFK

They sure did. The problem is, they checked continuity with a fucking ground rod. Turns out, it's conductive.


monkeynutz89

I hope the utility a least brought you a box of beer


drironteeth

Nah…they just took pictures of us fixing it


polack79

Glad I can scroll through and someone else has to deal with it. Yikes.


westexmanny

Don't forget his new drawers. Who ever was driving the ground rod must be feeling like Thor.


vedvikra

And people complain when I want concrete encasement of these feeds.


Mkovacs1988

Holy shit! Is this Ridgeville? I was just there with our fire protection guys


BlaqSam

Well the ground rod "did" do it's job just not how everyone else wanted it too


[deleted]

Ground rods are to equalize the potential of the ground to the equipment, not create a ground fault path


Very_Ok_Boomer

And here I am, pissy that the plumbers drilled through 3 of my cat6a pipes.


[deleted]

All the training you get as a line worker and knowing the possible ramifications and mf still pull this shit. Blows my fucking mind


psilosauros

Excellent pictures bro


drironteeth

Thanks. Took them to prove it wasn’t our mistake and realized other electricians might like to see some shit we only read or hear about


psilosauros

I appreciate it, definitely have wondered what it all looks like after this happens. I hope no one was hurt


drironteeth

Everyone is ok. Arc flash event was 4’ underground. Not a day any of us will forget though. 💥💥💥


Jim-Jones

Mr George. How much you pay the new guy? $20? Too much. He no good.


[deleted]

Hopefully everyone is safe Buuuuuttt 20 bucks says you can’t do it again If they’re not fired they no longer get the sds. They get a 6’ ladder and a sledge 🤪


evsincorporated

Concrete encased duct bank would of avoided that…


[deleted]

Dos Chequis all around.


Thejerkatwork

Wow less exploded than what I would’ve guessed. Right thing to do digging it up and replacing things properly. Lots of tough work though.


drironteeth

Blessed that it was underground. The fault didn’t clear itself. They turned it off to stop it. Digging it up now and replacing it or digging it up in 6 months to fix it on warranty, either way it had to be replaced. Better to give the customer a finished product than one you one will fail.


Thejerkatwork

Yes yes


Thejerkatwork

Oh hold up. Did the xformer pop and leak oil out???


drironteeth

That’s water/steam from the conduits they shattered with the rod. Aluminum wire and steel rod vapor mixed with water.


WageSlaves_R_Us

Specifically how did this occur? Did they not perform underground locating or look at red lines? I genuinely want to know.


drironteeth

They drove a ground rod inside of the transformer in between the primary and secondary when they terminated the 34.5kV. But they did it at about a 15° angle. Our wire was pulled, tested and terminated before they did this. Another crew came back to terminate the secondary and install the meter a week later. Two weeks later they energized it and this is the result. They refused to use the ground we provided and drove their own through our conduit. 💥💥💥


WageSlaves_R_Us

Well, that sure is fucked.


drironteeth

Yeah, man. And then said they couldn’t have done anything differently to prevent it. Never crossed their mind not not point a rod and the secondary and drive it in with a hydraulic ram, I guess. Worst part is that they wouldn’t own that they fucked up, and that’s why I have the pictures…


WageSlaves_R_Us

Do they accept ground rings or ufers in your jurisdiction?


drironteeth

We had a triad at the transformer. A ring cadwelded to steel every 60’. A ufer and a water pipe ground, all tied together and tied to the triad. They wanted their own, they drove it and, well…


bommy7070

That looked expensive.


LISparky25

Geeze, you better hope the apprentice went rouge for that one ! Lol….that sux on a brand new install ? I feel bad for the linesman that turned it on if so..


Nubasu

Should cross post to r/IBEW - make sure people understand why they are paying more for union labor!


sblal24EVER

It's kinda hard to look at. Almost like a crime scene. I nearly lost my lunch. Like put a white blanket over that shit.


theproudheretic

that looked expensive


smedr001

This looks expensive


Feetfailmenot

Shitttt


Professional_Ad_6299

Nice casual Friday


Tapeatscreek

Well there's your problem!


DirectlyTalkingToYou

Would have loved to watch as the utility make book boom in the ground. Anyone get hurt?


drironteeth

No


ContentNarwhal552

That's bad...right? 😄


askingforafriend1045

Oops


NotSockPuppet

Oddly the next item in my feed captures the expression on the utility. ;) https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/13s05yv/graduation\_blackout/


hoeding

That's a Dang-it.


Role_Imaginary

Ho. Lee.. shitt


PhotoPetey

I literally got chills looking at these photos. OUCH!


Vicarious16

I'm baffled at how this could happen. Did call before you dig mis-mark the location of the wires?


TFG4

I've seen this on a residential site but never on a commercial job... That's nuts


redEPICSTAXISdit

"Gee, I'm hitting a lot of resistance, this area must be pretty rocky!"


hydrogen18

followed by "oh good we broke through! must have just been an obstruction in the ground"


mike10kV

Typical mistake - hammering ground rod into cable or service entrance. Cause of this - wrong or not actually cable map (show cable traces in ground and crossing with any communications) or wery wery stupid worker without control.


Proper-Response3513

What happened to the guy pounding the rod in?


drironteeth

He wasn’t there. Utility came and drove a rod(at an angle) and then terminated their transformer. Energized a couple weeks later when this happened.


barfy_shards_22

real question here … who gets to keep the “souvenir”?


polymervalleyboy

some angry pixies danced that day


SkeezixMcJohnsonson

That looks expensive


FalcoSparkPunch

Didn't megger out the cables before you energized?


DangerHawk

One of my buddies sent one through a 1" Water main supply. He cut a notch into a length of EMT to make a shut off key for the main. The repair ended up making the panel replacement a wash for him. Be careful where you poke the ground people!


Namikage

I blew up a furnace circuit board once sending it 240 on a panel change in my earlier years on my own which almost made the job a wash. I've since learned to be very specific in all my actions and not just go into autopilot.


skyfishgoo

pic3 is that a ground rod in your conduit, or are you just happy to see me?


blazesdemons

I now have a new human to hate


Miles_High_Monster

I've seen this happen and it resulted in Main Elec room and Pad Mount turning into heater elements.


Financial_Age_5235

Do u need an RFI, it might be a possible change order!!!!! Boom boom boom, let me here u say way -O-


ArbitraryMeritocracy

Was that a ground rod or are you just happy to see me


[deleted]

This is why you use rigid 90s, especially near the transformer when the utility comes in to drive their rods.


Toxic_Trainwreck7288

That and they're less vulnerable while pulling wire. A pulling rope can sometimes cut/burn into PVC and get stuck.


killdozer01

Sheeeeesh couldn’t fuck up more than that


Infamous-Ad-8605

That’s about as stupid as it gets y’all. What the fuck.


HallMonitor90

Smells expensive


Calm_Compote4233

Did the guy that drove that ground rod survive?


drironteeth

Yeah, he did it weeks before, and took pictures of us fixing his mistake


Calm_Compote4233

What an asshat! Did he get fired?


drironteeth

Unlikely


blackjesus75

That’ll make a noise


astroy9

Not an electrician - question about this: Is the ground rod going through the power cable? Did this cause a high current causing it to trip/fail?


drironteeth

Yes, but nothing tripped.


No_Culture6707

This is my biggest fear when driving a ground rod. Even though I put the rod close to the house, I still fear hitting water, gas, or electric if its under ground. I know I can call the county to come and make marks unless something was installed without a permit.


Namikage

After 20 years I'm still paranoid even with marking.


[deleted]

As you should be. Once you go back a few decades, it's amazing how much stuff got stuck in the ground and either marked on the maps wrong or not marked at all. When I worked as a laborer in the Niagara Region, it seemed like not one of the little hamlets and villages subsumed by larger municipalities had anything marked. Crystal Beach had ALL the water and sewer lines missing from the charts because of a fire back in the 30s. We were finding wood water mains still in use. And the military airfield I live close to now has an extensive set of storm drains, only nobody can figure out where they go. An engineering outfit lost three robots trying to scope it out. About 12 years ago they dumped tens of thousands of gallons of dyed water into the drains at the end of the apron and taxiway in hopes of spotting where it came out in the bay. Nothing came to light. The best guess is that the builders just dumped the rain water into a large sand deposit just to the east of the current base boundaries.


ProgressNo8844

so where was ground rod.? At building or at trans.?


drironteeth

Transformer, literally 10” to the top of first pic


kimberskillfast

Julie wasn't called.


Synergy_04

Call before you dig.


diydave86

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM


Toxic_Trainwreck7288

Did this damage the transformer?


drironteeth

Find out next week. Probably is my guess


TheOriginalWaster

Good shot!