Plumbers in Slidell, Texas

Collector cable trenching and what it can cross

A wind farm's underground collector system connects turbines to a substation, and that trenching covers a lot of ground, sometimes crossing easements or leased land where a landowner's own water line also runs.

The development's own utility locate covers their planned work, not necessarily every private line on your property. A landowner's own water or septic line is not automatically part of the developer's locate unless it has been specifically flagged to them.

Lease and easement agreements often include a process for reporting existing utilities. Read what your specific agreement requires, and provide any location information you have as early as possible, ideally before the agreement is finalized.

811 locate requests still apply on your own initiative. Having your own lines marked independently, in addition to whatever the developer does, adds a layer of protection during a period of heavy ground disturbance.

What to do if a line gets damaged during construction

Even with good planning, construction this heavy sometimes damages something. How you respond matters as much as the repair itself.

Document everything before repair work starts. Photographs of the damage and its location, dated, are what support a claim against the construction company or developer responsible.

Check your lease or easement agreement for a damage claims process. Most agreements of this kind specify how damage claims should be submitted, and following that process gets a faster and cleaner resolution than an informal complaint.

Get the repair done properly regardless of how the claims process is going. A household should not go without water or a functioning septic system while a construction dispute works itself out, and the repair invoice becomes part of the documentation either way.

None of this makes wind development a bad thing for a landowner to have on their property. It simply means treating construction of this scale the way you would any major nearby earthwork: mark first, document as you go.

How we work

We locate and mark existing lines before construction starts if you give us enough notice, and we repair anything damaged during a build with documentation you can use for a claim.

We cover Slidell, Boyd and the rest of Wise County, and construction-related line protection is work we have taken on regularly as wind development has grown in this area.