2 ms·

> Here in NL that would never ever happen with a permit. Lots of in-ground infrastructure and serious risk to that if you start digging around in that without t

by tzs 3y ago

> Here in NL that would never ever happen with a permit. Lots of in-ground infrastructure and serious risk to that if you start digging around in that without the right maps and access to various IT systems to indicate where you can safely dig, where you absolutely can not and where the pavement and the water management interact. Would digging for a garden be deep enough to reach that infrastructure? Water pipes should be below the frost line. Google is failing to find me any frost line data for NL, but in places in the US where it tells me the climate is very similar to NL water pipes have to be at least 2 ft down. If codes for power cables are at all like those in the US, I'd expect power to be at least a foot down, unless it is metal conduit. If it is in metal conduit you should be able to find it with a metal detector so you can avoid digging into it. Those should all be deeper than you would typically dig when making a garden, except for electric lines in metal conduit.

jacquesm 3y ago
That very much depends. There is a ton of shallow fiber and a well placed shovel would cut right through. I've worked with a company that sells software to manage infrastructure and the amount of stuff in the ground is pretty impressive. Personal experience: 380V feed 40 cm down (too shallow, but: old cable), sewage shallower than that because the main pipe was itself too shallow and this was an old vacuum system (newer ones are usually positive pressure). Stuff also doesn't always stay at the depth at which it is buried and sometimes there are repairs which end up less deep than you'd really like to have them because you don't want to dig up a bunch of stuff around it as well. I'd be very wary of sticking a shovel into the ground in a city without having access to the relevant data. Keep in mind that you may be held liable for any damage.

by tzs 3y ago

jacquesm 3y ago

That very much depends. There is a ton of shallow fiber and a well placed shovel would cut right through. I've worked with a company that sells software to manage infrastructure and the amount of stuff in the ground is pretty impressive. Personal experience: 380V feed 40 cm down (too shallow, but: old cable), sewage shallower than that because the main pipe was itself too shallow and this was an old vacuum system (newer ones are usually positive pressure). Stuff also doesn't always stay at the depth at which it is buried and sometimes there are repairs which end up less deep than you'd really like to have them because you don't want to dig up a bunch of stuff around it as well. I'd be very wary of sticking a shovel into the ground in a city without having access to the relevant data. Keep in mind that you may be held liable for any damage.