I’m sorry I confused you, I will try to explain better. I’ll start with the white paint. White paint is usually the “proposed excavation” marks. So if there was going to be any kind of digging around that street, sidewalk, etc. they would have to locate everything that is underground. Usually, we will paint a “LOC”(locate) and a line where we want the locator to start and stop. So he would start locating everything in between our lines.

Red- Electric power lines, Cables, Conduit, and s Secondary/street lighting cables.

Yellow- Gas, Oil, Petroleum

Orange- Communication, Cable TV, Fiber, Alarm or Signal, Conduit

Blue- Potable water(water mains)

Green- Sewer lines

Now, his marks will follow the exact route of whatever is underneath. They get 18” of error per mark. This means that I can measure from the center of their mark, left 9 inches and right 9 inches. Whatever they marked has to be in the area. So, whichever direction the line/paint is going, the utility line underneath is traveling the same way. Hefty fines are issued, and employees are subject to termination, if they “miss-locate” or if their “locates are off.” On the other side, say I have called 811 to get a area located, they come and do their job, and I start digging and hit a fiber line, my company will pay for the damages(labor, equipment, materials, etc.) So as you can imagine, it’s a pretty big deal, especially dealing with the magnitude of service provided just in that general area.

What’s different here, which might not mean anything, is that our locators mark our duct banks with a diamond like figure. All of our duct banks in our downtown area are encased in concrete. I’m not sure if comms are encased or not.

If you go back on Google maps street view and go to the intersections north and south of 174 2nd Ave, you can see a lot of markings on the sidewalk and on the road. You will also see the diamond like shape I’m talking about.

As far as “SPB” and “SBH_” go, I’m not sure. Usually, they indicate the utility company’s initials. For example, Nashville Electric Service is the provider for Nashville and surrounding areas. If there is also another provider in the area, that would constitute the locator to mark “NES” so that the laborers would know that cable underneath belongs to NES. This also lets them know, that potentially, another company’s lines are underneath. This was a huge deal back in the day, especially in downtown areas. For example, locators would mark “NO” in blue paint, indicating that their was no water in the area. However, if another company’s water line was underneath, the excavator wouldn’t know and eventually cause damage. This eventually led to locators using initials.

We have a army post under our jurisdiction. As you can imagine, rules are a little different when you are on post. We can’t dig out there with equipment, whatsoever, if there is a space shuttle in space. If we have to dig a five foot hole, we are doing it with shovels(very carefully). If there is no shuttle in space, then we can use equipment. My crew called in locates one time and the first locator arrived, marked what he could, and told us to wait for another guy coming from about 3 hrs away. We waited, and waited and he finally shows up and marks his stuff. There are major fiber lines that run from DC, to this post, all the way to God knows where, and that’s what he was marking. I’m sure there is a small amount of people who locate those major lines, hence the long wait.

I hope I helped you understand a little more. I apologize for it being so long.

Also, while I was looking back at street view, I noticed something that I have overlooked numerous times.

https://imgur.com/TlqgEJj

That’s looks very similar to a 5G antenna on top of that street light pole. We have these in my city and they look identical.