Saturday, 14 July 2018

Connecting The World Through Conduit And Cable Plowing

By Daniel Graham


For most of the existence of the planet for less than one percent of the total time elapsed since the planet came into being. As such, it is truly remarkable how far man has come. In less than ten thousand years, man has gone from primitive hunter gatherer societies to reaching the moon and even extending its reach beyond the stars. But in the interim, humankind did many other things. It created motorized vehicles. It created cities great and small, and it harnessed power in order to light those cities up. In the past, the power lines were above the ground, situated on trees, in many places they still are. But in recent years, there has been a growing trend to situate those lines under the ground, a goal which can be achieved with conduit and cable plowing.

Now, plowing involves moving right through something. In this method, a plow is attached to a vehicle. The vehicle then charges forward and tears through the earth. Then wires are placed into the resulting trench, connected to appropriate ports, secured and sealed, and then the trench is filled in as to prevent people from falling inside.

There are other means to get wires and such underground. But plowing is the quickest way to do it. Trenching may be more versatile and controllable, but in some cases, nothing beats speed.

Part of the innovation that human society has wrought on the world is the comfort. Those comforts, like running water, electricity and the more recent necessity that is the internet, all have to be physically delivered to a home, though the last one might be changing in the near future. Since most people refuse to go without such comforts, the means to deliver them will be necessary.

The alternatives to the plow method are overhead wires and poles. The detriment to such an alternative is that they tend to go down relatively easily in inclement weather. Once those wires are down, they can become a safety concern for anyone on the street. Lastly, overhead wires are unseemly to look at and having the wires hidden makes for a cleaner, or at least cleaner looking, street overall.

The main benefit of laying pipes and wires underground is the safety aspect. Overhead wires can become entangled in each other, which can impede performance, and also break. Overhead wires that hand loose can cause injuries.

The main tool used is the plough, a vehicle with a sort of blade at the end to displace the earth. The second main tool is another vehicle to hold the cables. The second vehicle follows the first vehicle and lays down what needs to be laid down as it goes.

The places that would benefit most from underground conduits and cables are literally any street in the world. At no point are overhead wires ever better. Residential streets are safer and neater for subterranean wiring and piping, and urban streets need them even more because of urban density.

Some animals are lazy by nature. Some animals have an adventurous spirit. But man has brought the world into the home, thereby having the best of both worlds.




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