New Conduit Runs for Cable and Phone

I back filled the trench with about 12 inches dirt. I did this by digging a second trench only 24 inches deep directly adjacent to the 36 inch deep electric trench. This allowed me to elevate the cable and phone conduits so that they are not directly next to the high voltage (which is better for data quality). I covered the electric wire splice with sand (as per code). Then I cut open the cable and phone conduits so that I could pull the cables out and reroute them to their new location at the corner of the house.

The coax cable pulled out very easily and then I used a 90 degree sweep and a 45 degree turn to elevate and turn the conduit run. It was really easy.

The phone line would not budge! I pulled on it from down in the pit and up at the house. No movement. I figured the only way to move the phone line was to cut the wire and splice new wire onto it so I called Frontier to see if I could get some new phone wire. I told them I had an open pit and was hoping to drive by one of their service yards and pick up some wire and a splice kit. I ended up speaking to three different reps and they told me that someone in the Washington state division would call me back shortly. I had mentioned (nicely) that I was willing to just cancel my service and then order new service so that I wouldn't have to pay for any of wire after they told me they were going to have to charge me to the wire.

I got a call back with in fifteen minutes from a Washington area manger who told me that a crew coordinator was going to call me in about thirty minutes. I got the next call and the crew coordinator was at my house in about an hour and a half. He was very puzzled how I was able to get such quick service and attention. He told me that my work order had come from the Washington vice president of Frontier. I have no I deal how that happened! We both laughed about it! My spouse thinks this event is karmic balance for having to wait so long for the electric meter relocation project to move through the bureaucracies.

He puzzled over my stuck wire and eventually tied some wire to my wire and pulled on it with his truck. The old wire came loose after two tries! It had been stuck because some of the PVC adhesive that was originally used to put together the conduit had adhered to 3 inches of the wire! he checked the wire and deemed it fit for use and ordered a tech to be out at my house the next day to install a new Network Interface Device (NID) box. I thanked him for his really great and fast service!

I then ran the phone wire through the new conduit.

Here is the work pit and trench after I back filled the electric trench with sand and dirt. And the cut open conduit for the cable and phone lines.

Here are the two new runs of conduit (with cable and phone lines inside).

And here is the work pit with the rest of the sand in it. I shoveled about a cubic yard of sand. I tried to get my seven-year-old and three-year-old to help shovel but they weren't interested.

The tech showed up the next day and installed my new NID and connected my wire. I ran the wire from under my house to the NID and made that connection after he finished his work and left. I had to troubleshoot for 30 minutes because my phone still didn't have a dial tone (if that is even the right term anymore since nobody dials anything). It turns out that the tech either didn't seat the incoming wires correctly or I needed to unseat the wires in order to get some residual electric charge to dissipate. I was finally able to get the dial tone and now the phone line works again!