PSA: I just learned how much old cable is still buried in New York City

I was reading a city report from last year and it said there are over 8,000 miles of abandoned copper and coaxial lines still under the streets. I always knew we were pulling new fiber past old stuff, but that number really hit me. Has anyone else come across a crazy amount of legacy cable on a job recently?

4 comments

4 Comments

gracethomas1mo ago

That 8,000 mile number is low. I pulled a permit for a small conduit job in Queens last month and the city maps showed three layers of abandoned lines just on that block. The real issue is nobody wants to pay for the removal.

charles_baker281mo ago

Sounds like a total nightmare, honestly.

grantpatel1mo ago

Three layers on one block? How deep do they even go before hitting bedrock? That's a crazy amount of old junk just sitting there, and you're right, the bill to pull it all would be insane.

keith27416d ago

Yeah so a buddy of mine who does telecom work in Brooklyn told me about pulling a new fiber line down by Coney Island last spring. They hit five old cables just digging the first two feet, three of them were from the 80s with no records. @charles_baker28, you'd lose your mind seeing the tangle, they had to hand dig around it because the city couldn't confirm if any of it was still live. By the time they got through one block they'd already wasted half a day on stuff that's been dead longer than I've been alive.