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[sheddyian]

In November 2011 over a period of several days, I noticed Openreach engineers working inside a manhole. Several times I saw them with what looked like drain rods, and they did appear to be trying to rod out or unblock something under the road.

A few days later a 6 wheeled thing with an enormous hose on it appeared, and further up the road (in a traffic island) there was a van with several workmen peering down another manhole.  (see attached pictures). This went on for some hours, then they all went away. 

That was Novemeber 2011.  Yesterday, in the evening, I hear clanking outside, look out, and see a van parked in the middle of the road by the traffic island, the manhole once more lifted.  They leave after a few hours.

Tonight, about 7pm, a much larger machine than in the first picture appears, along with 3 vans, and there's much engine revving and scurrying about and general Work Being Done.  It's now 23:50 and they're still there!  The large 6 wheeled tanker-like machine with an enormous hose on a reel has been moved about several times, to both open manholes.

My question then, is this : what on earth are they doing?  I'm not 100% it's a BT manhole, but fairly sure it is.  There's no sign of water spraying out or being pumped out.  None of the vans yesterday or today have any BT logos.

Why only do this work at night?  It's a fairly busy main road, but they're in no way blocking the traffic with what they're doing.  If it was urgent, wouldn't they have worked earlier today?

And will this make my broadband any faster? 

Ian


(Pictures are from the first appearance in November 2011.  Tried to take a few snaps this evening, but it's too dark!)

[burakkucat]

Just checking . . . It's currently February 2013. Did you mean November 2011? Or perhaps November 2012?

As for what they are doing, why not go out there, have a 'nosey' and ask one of them? 

[sheddyian]

Just checking . . . It's currently February 2013. Did you mean November 2011? Or perhaps November 2012?

That's what makes it more curious.  The dates I typed were correct. They were last there in November 2011. 14 months ago!

As for what they are doing, why not go out there, have a 'nosey' and ask one of them? 

They look very busy and I wouldn't want to disturb them! 

Ian

[burakkucat]

To be honest, it doesn't look like anything relating to communications infrastructure maintenance . . . Perhaps 'Big Nellie' has a blockage in her outflow? 

[sheddyian]

I went over to have a look this morning on my way out, and you're right burakkucat, it's drains.

In my defence, there is a square manhole marked TELECOM HD about 3 metres away, and it's no doubt this that I saw Openreach engineers rodding back in November 2011.  Silted up cable duct?

But the BT manhole hasn't recently been disturbed, whereas a plainer looking square manhole nearby, seemingly connected to a storm drain, clearly has been lifted, and there's water and mud around it.

And there was me hoping that flushing the silt from the telecom ducts would make my broadband flow faster 

Ian

[Black Sheep]

Glad it's been cleared up, that it isn't BT banging and clanging outside your house, in the small hours. 

Those 'Drain rods' you spotted the actual Openreach engineers using. They are kinda used as a means to force crap out of our duct spaces, but primarily as a conduit to get from one underground box, to another. If we were to just push a cable down the duct, within a few metres it would begin to 'back-up' on itself. We need something of a solid structure, but also maleable to get round the ducts curvatures. Once the rods are in place between boxes, a heavy gauge blue/orange rope will be tied to them and this will replace the duct-rods as they are then pulled out.
The cable is then tied to the rope (by opening up the rope and slotting the cable through at various intervals, and using a helluva lot of insulating tape), and pulled through.

It's during this 'Rodding and roping' process that we sometimes get 'rope burn', or actual damage to existing cables within the duct, especially if there's a few in there. No matter how gentle one is, it can and does happen.

On newly installed duct, where there are likely to be no 'stoppages' (collapsed duct), and no other cables in-situ, we use air-pressure to 'blow in' the rope. In it's crudest form, its basically a crisp-packet with a rope tied to it that's subjected to high pressure being blown into it. It only happens to you once in your life, but when you're knelt down with your head in the joint box and you think to yourself, "Hmmm, what's that I can hear", you get your head out of the way, as in like yesterday. The 'crisp packet' doesn't half come through that duct at some pace !!!

Sorry for going on, just a bit of info whilst I sit awaiting my missus to drop me off with the lads, to go on the lash.

[sheddyian]

Thanks, that's interesting.

I had wondered back in Novemeber 2011 if they were threading new cables through with the rods, but they were there for a long time, I think coming back a day or two later to do the same.  It did look much more like trying to unblock a drain than pushing a cable through, so when the truck and van in my earlier picture turned up, I just assumed it was solidly blocked and they'd called in some specialists to have a go.

It was the mysterious night-time return , sans Openreach, that puzzled me, until this mornings discovery that there are two different manholes close by!

Ian

[burakkucat]

I went over to have a look this morning on my way out, and you're right burakkucat, it's drains.

I thought my sensitive nose was detecting a slight unpleasant 'niff' . . . 

Glad to know it is all sorted, for now.