To-Do List: Service Line Conduit
As related in The Battle for Electricity, JCP&L accepted my proposal for getting power to the house in a way that avoided cutting down any trees. The challenge then became coordinating three entities: JCP&L, the contractor for trenching and installing the conduit, and the Township inspector.
It also required purchasing 750 feet of plastic conduit, as well as 1200 feet of pull rope, at a cost of $2200; excavation brought the total to around $3500. Thankfully JCP&L agreed to dispense with the pull box.
What looks like a big trash bin is the transformer pedestal, sitting upside down, which was supplied by JCP&L.
Who Owns What?
The conduit installation got pushed from 1 October to 9 October because the Township didn't know if they needed to inspect the trench. It was all down to the ownership of the service line: if it belonged to the homeowner, then they needed to inspect; if not, they didn't. But here's the thing: I definitely do not own the service line itself; JCP&L owns the wire all the way up to the meter, whereas I had to pay for the conduit through which their wire runs, as well as its installation. So, technically I don't own the service line itself, but I do own everything else. The Township finally decided they needed to inspect it because, surprisingly, JCP&L elected not to.
The Two-Day Dig
It was all supposed to happen in one day. But thanks to the Township, it took two: the inspector was scheduled to look at the trench around noon on Tuesday, halfway through the process.
But he never showed up. So the trench couldn't be backfilled in until the following day.
Now I basically have a "new" driveway. It will be re-graded and resurfaced in a week or two, after the trench backfill has settled.
Then came some happy strangeness: evidently the inspection took place entirely outside of my knowledge, and I was only informed of it on Thursday, 11 October. After notifying JCP&L, they scheduled the wire pulling for the following Monday and Tuesday, 15 and 16 October, with inspection on Tuesday afternoon.