All excited to dig on a old farm in Ohio and my shovel hit a buried power line

I was out near Mansfield last spring helping a buddy survey a field his grandpa used to plow. We had permission and everything, but nobody thought to call the utility locator service. I slammed my shovel down to cut a clean test pit and felt a jolt go up my arm. Dropped the shovel like it was on fire and saw sparks flying out of the dirt. Turns out there was a shallow unmarked line from an old well pump that got buried decades ago. We ended up calling the power company and they came out to mark everything. Cost us a whole afternoon but nobody got hurt and we learned a hard lesson about calling before you dig. Has anyone else run into surprise buried junk on a site?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly_coleman6117d ago

Man, my buddy hit a gas line doing the same thing in Indiana!

henry10117d ago

Damn, that's bad luck. Your buddy must have been shaking after that. Hitting a gas line is one of those things you never forget. Probably cost him a pretty penny to get it fixed too.