Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: doggonemess on June 19, 2013, 10:51:14 am

Title: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: doggonemess on June 19, 2013, 10:51:14 am
Greetings,

I'm hoping that someone can help me figure these out. They're all over the grassy areas in the parking lot at my work. They look like capped pipes, but why would there be clusters of them? I've included some pics, one closeup and two examples.

Any ideas? I would appreciate it!

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-csqIwcVH53I/UcGyTjsNnRI/AAAAAAAAAjw/WyF0gdnrAgs/w890-h647-no/pvccaps1.jpg)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Ni4ysnQ1Cvg/UcGyTh7gabI/AAAAAAAAAj4/hOpJSc2PM4A/w708-h741-no/pvccaps2.jpg)

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A8x5D5NbX4c/UcGyTnLiuFI/AAAAAAAAAj0/aYwApkAlPfk/w714-h741-no/pvccaps3.jpg)
Title: Re: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: Marks on June 19, 2013, 11:18:57 am
Where do you work?
Title: Re: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: mullet on June 19, 2013, 11:28:50 am
Kinda look like Monitor Well clusters.
Title: Re: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: osage outlaw on June 19, 2013, 11:32:58 am
If you work near a sewer plant, DO NOT REMOVE THE CAPS !!!  ;D
Title: Re: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: ErictheViking on June 19, 2013, 12:31:21 pm
if its in the parking lot they could be capped conduit for power to feed future street lights. have seen people use them for water system valve protectors.
Title: Re: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: doggonemess on June 19, 2013, 03:13:25 pm
I work at Anne Arundel Community College, in Arnold, MD. The campus was a farm about 50 years ago. I heard from a local historian that the owner allowed people to dump on certain parts of his property for a fee. This info was confirmed when I found a county document from five years ago detailing the locations of 'private' dumps and proposing cleanup solutions.

The interesting thing is that I believe I found the dumpsite, but this whole hill behind the school (the parking lot) has clusters of these pipe caps all over the place. Could these possibly be caps for pipes that vent methane? Or are they all monitor wells? If so, why would they be clustered?

If my theory is correct, does it mean that the entire hillside parking lot is built on top of a landfill?

Thanks for your help! I think you've all confirmed what I was thinking.
Title: Re: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: paulsemp on June 19, 2013, 04:20:15 pm
they are probably for future communication boxes. buy me they are green boxes about 4 feet tall that you will see the telephone and internet low voltage electrition working on. that pipe probably only goes down about 4 feet and then turns 90 and runs to another destination.  they use big PVC so they could pull looms of wire through it.  they are all together in clusters so they come up into one box as a junction point. just a guess though from what I've seen
Title: Re: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: bubby on June 19, 2013, 04:22:43 pm
i'm with paul, back in the day I used to install futures like that all the time
Title: Re: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: Cardboard_Duck on June 19, 2013, 06:07:35 pm
I was thinking the same as Paul, they are just stubbed up pipes for future expansion. When ever we do that at work we use grey schedule 80 PVC though.
Title: Re: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: Rick Wallace on June 19, 2013, 10:02:38 pm
Might be an entrance to the other deminsion,,  never know   :-\
Title: Re: Weird PVC pipe clusters - any ideas?
Post by: doggonemess on June 20, 2013, 12:27:28 pm
If they're for communication boxes, why would they have them every 100 feet or so? Isn't that kind of excessive?

Besides that bit of doggonemess-logic, I bet you guys might be right. I wouldn't expect that a parking lot would be built on a landfill. It wouldn't be safe, and the ground would eventually settle, right?

Thanks!