STA 1+00 Act 1 of 3 · Understand
Design
Engineer it so a crew can build it without guessing.
Turn the route into construction prints: fiber counts and splice points, loss budgets, pole loading, underground profiles and a bill of materials.
The checklist and Watch Out items are typical practice. Owner specifications, permits and the governing rules decide what applies.
Design Checklist
Saved on this device
Watch Out
- Without spare fibers or empty duct, the next project starts with a new trench.
- Splice points in driveways or busy roads are hard to reach for repairs.
- Prints without footages or stationing slow down every crew that uses them.
- Skipping pole loading on angle and dead-end poles is how a design fails inspection.
- A bore profile drawn from plan depths, not pothole data, is a guess.
Why This Stage Matters
The prints are the crew’s instructions. Every question a foreman has to stop and ask costs time on site, and every guess a crew has to make is a risk. Good design answers the questions before they come up: where the strand attaches, how deep the bore runs, which fiber goes where and how much slack to leave.
What Good Looks Like
- Attachment heights keep the separations required by the
NESC (IEEE C2)and the owner, checked during field survey and make-ready engineering. - Pole loading results are read with the Pole Loading Primer in mind, so every failing pole has a guy, a rearrangement or a replacement in the make-ready.
- Bore profiles show entry and exit points and the clearance at every crossing, ready for bore planning once potholing confirms the depths.
- The splice matrix and the fiber color code agree with the cable counts on the prints.
- Pulls are planned with the Pull Planner and duct sizes checked with Duct Fill.
- Symbols follow one legend, such as the FAHMY drawing symbols, so anyone can read the prints.
Hand-Off to the Next Stage
Permit uses the prints, profiles and make-ready list to apply for pole attachments and right-of-way permits. Design changes after permits are issued usually mean a resubmittal.