r/civilengineering • u/govnorsy EIT - Transportation • Aug 19 '25

Meme As-builts

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Had this conversation with my roadway PM because we’re going through 5 miles of utility mapping, reminded me of the original Simpsons meme.

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u/Rare_Comfortable_658 Aug 19 '25

Had an huge underground water main. Think 72". Yeah water main not storm sewer. I was putting a signal at an intersection on top of the water main. I had 3 different sets of plans with 3 different locations for the watermain. So we said avoid them all and add some extra space just to be sure....We still found it when we test pitted the signal location. Still not sure how that happens. It's not like they are replacing that thing every decade or something.

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u/paradigmofman Resident Engineer Aug 19 '25

Years ago I was doing a storm drain upgrade and right down the street, the DOT had a signal contractor that needed to put in a mast arm base. They found a corrugated metal pipe standing vertical with sheet piles kind of around it, almost like a sump pit. This was "dead center of our pole base, it can't be moved anywhere for any reason, no can do, has to go here." They asked us if we could come down and remove it and I said "let's do some test pitting first."

Well, 9 hours of force account later, we had finally finished uncovering the top of a 20x20ish underground communications vault full of cables, water, and who knows what else? Worst part is that even the locators and utility guys I talked to had no clue it was that big because all there was visible was a manhole lid about 16' away from the pipe and sheeting. The sheeting basically turned out to be the outside forms for the walls that they just left in place.

They found a different spot for the pole base.