sewer tap elevation

[Daddy-0-]

We recently had a situation in a neighboring county where a sewer contractor was killed while making the connection of the private house sewer pipe to the county sewer line. The hole was very deep. We are trying to get our policy changed so that the county will install a riser to each lot when the main sewer is installed. This way the sewer contractor will never have to dig deeper than six feet to make the connection.

Please describe how your jurisdiction operates. Does utilities provide a riser or do the contractors have to dig down to the saddle at the lateral or do you have another method? Some of our saddles are 20' deep!

Also, any advice on how to handle getting our utility department policy changed would be great!

 

[fatboy]

Ours are always stubbed in by the developer into the front utility easement. It varies on depth, but I've seen them as deep as 20'. Typically, between 8-12'.

The contractor needs to have safe trenching training and know what they are doing, it's their job. Sorry someone lost their life, but it can happen in any trade if you don't know what you are doing.

 

[Daddy-0-]

Very experienced contractor just a fluke accident. They were filling the deep hole with #57 stone and the tailgate on the dumptruck broke. The whole load of gravel came out at once knocking him into the hole and burying him with gravel. (This is the unofficial story of what supposedly happened. No one knows for sure because the only one there was the driver of the truck.) He probably cut a corner on safety. Who knows. I don't personally think that we have any business in holes that deep which is why we are trying to change our practices.

I have seen sewer taps so deep that they chained the backhoe to a dumptruck so they could lower it partially into the hole to finish digging. Then they dug the last 4' with a shovel. Not worth it IMO. OSHA would have a field day.

 

[tmurray]

Same as fatboy here. I have never seen material dumped out of a truck directly into a trench. Always dumped onto the ground and a backhoe drops it in one bucket at a time.

 

[SCBO1]

The way the gravel is being installed seams to be a shortcut, one issue would be gravel placement over the pipe causing the pipe to be bellied if the trench bottom is'nt flat.

Gravel cost, bet the quarry loves those county jobs!

pc1

 

[Msradell]

Actually, stubbing up to 6 feet could create an even worse problem. The county crews would obviously need proper shoring procedures when they did their work. The contractor would also need proper shoring to do the tie-in at 6 foot because that's also deeper than allowed under OSHA for work without proper shoring! As it is, only one group needs to have the proper shoring to do the work.

 

[Builder Bob]

The problem with the sewer stubb outs is that the sewer line (main line) has to run downhill ( I know this is obvious , the problem with sewer ties that are not on a similar grade and speed is that the higher velocity discharge (from a higher tap) will cause the sludge in the sewer line to make mini-dams as a residence dumps the water into the sewer line ---- the higher velocity sludge hits the lower velocity muck and water flow velocity becomes unstable and if near a corner will cause back-ups of mini dams...... (Go play in the curb next time it rains and pour a bucket of water into the trough of the curb and see what happens with the heavier sand/silt in the curb..... when the flow slows down or stops, a mini-dam is created to catch the small leaves and twigs from the next rainstorm)

The OSHA compliance issue is not an issue that is directly regulated by the code book... Enforcement of OSHA trench digging guidelines is what is needed..........

 

[jeffc]

I've seen this problem where the house was almost built and they had a 20'+ hole next to the house for the sewer line. Between keeping the rain out of the hole and preventing the house from sliding in, I thought their should be a better way.