LOW PRICE METHOD TO REPAIR CABLES AT SHORE END

Jorge Orlando García Lozano

jorgeogl@netscape.net, jgarcia@telemediciones.dynip.com
Telemediciones SA, Carrera 27C No. 71B - 45, Bogota Colombia
Abstract: This document is a proposal to the cable brotherhood to consider a simple but proved and economic method to
fix damaged cables at shore end. Attached graphic details showing how the repair work was conducted by a small team
without previous experience. Nine fibers from 24, survived the action of a trencher contracted to protect a main street from
high tide. The plan included the installation of a construction platform to safely repair the cable on it. It was also necessary
to recover around 100 meters of buried Single Armoured cable. Total repair cost including Single Armoured cable was
around US $20,000, against the US $300,000 of the cheapest quotation.

1 INTRODUCTION
At 4:05 pm on January 20th, 2002 a SDH fault was
detected in the Telecom’s Cartagena Colombia Station.
Fifty percent of the submarine systems to Tolu, (the
Colombia Landing point for Maya-1) were out of
service. Local measurements with the OTDR, showed 4
fibers broken from a 24 fibers cable, at 4 Km from the
Cartagena Station, very close to the beach manhole.
Further verifications confirmed that a trench contracted
by Local authorities had been working in that place,
however were not found signs of excavations around
that area. Trying to find solutions without previous
experience or guidelines was chaotic. The first
requirement of the maintenance people was to preserve
the service, as really it happened, but incompetence was
jumping from head to head.

Figure 2: Cable fault influence zone

Figures 1 and 2 are drawings showing the Telecom’s
festoons landing at Marbella. The same landing point
for Arcos. Assistance from Barranquilla, the neighbour
international submarine cable station was very soon
provided. A detailed survey o f the beach manhole area
and manual readings with the OTDR, showed four cuts
and high attenuation in 12 fibers, just 30 meters from
the beach manhole, exactly where the trencher was
observed working days before. Figure 3, is a crossed
view of the Marbella shore end and Figure 4, the PVC
pipe containing the submarine cable, destroyed by the
Figure 1 direct impact from the trencher. PVC pipes were
exposed after remove manually several rocks.

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 Figure 3
Figure 4
Figures 6, is the result of the OTDR traces analysis
presented in the Figure 5 data arrange, several months
later, when the pressure to restore the service was
inevitable. At that time several attempts to contact cable
repair companies were conducted by Telecom’s central
administration without any economical agreement.
Although Telecom was part of the ACMA, the cable
used in the festoon System has not been qualified yet
(UQJ) and therefore unacceptable under the Agreement
requirements.
Figure 5
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Figure 6
As a personal challenge, a group of workers had
proposed a method to repair the cable, with ideas as
crazy as to install a couple of containers filled with
stones to provide stability and a flat surface to make the
splice.
Others proposed the construction of a small palafito
(wooden house raised on stilts) with the same purpose.
These idea storms finally conducted to concrete plan
with a good success probability and whose main merit
was to convince the Central Administration that there
was not anything to lose if an opportunity to fix the
fault was given to them.
2 THE PLAN
With the problem perfectly defined, and the
responsibility assigned, the work team began to spread
the required knowledge base between co-workers and
soon every body was engaged in the project. Financial
resources for external contractors and expenses for
around $20,000 were allocated. While contractors with
experience in excavations in places with high phreatic
level were required and also experience with pumps,
mounting mechanical structures, and logistical services,
the Technical work team began their one week
accelerate practices on splice table, and fusion
equipment. Five people including driver, splicers and
coordination leader were the called Work team. From
the other side, the contractor employed 9 people, skilled
on shallow water works, soldering, diving, mechanical
mountings, powering and marine surveillance.
Three hundred meters of Single Armoured Cable, two
SA repair kits, appropriated tools, splicing machine,
OTDR, and a very good attitude, were the additional
elements used during the 10 days works. Critical repair
began on October 8, 2002, 10 months later of the cable
damage. Local authorities and Port Captaincy managed
permits with celerity closing the beach area for safety
reasons for two weeks.
3 KEY FACTORS
Three key factors from our view point, contributed to
the successful work:
1. First, one a big trench excavator. The
efficiency or the amount of sand removed against the
water sea leaking was the first lesson learned. The first
day was a total chaos due to the impossibility to remove
enough sand as to expose the burial pipes and cable.
Replacing the trencher and taking enough care while
digging, because parallel to the damaged cable runs
another one, with similar characteristics, encouraged
the work team to proceed with caution extreme. Very
soon results were evident, and both cables were
exposed.
Although cables were buried one meter depth, they
were found three meters under sea level. Sedimentation
erosion, inner space between PVC and cement pipes,
also contributed to increase the weight of the protection
and send the cables every time deeper. Please note
Figure 7 to 13. They show the sequence of bring the
cable to the surface. A small dike was constructed Figure 8
during the works to avoid sea action over the exposed
cable. Buoys made with fuel tanks were employed to
keep the pipes above the water level. At the end of the
day when cable was totally buoyed, the dike was
destroyed by water pressure and a small ”interior sea”
reached the last manhole. Waves action contributed
during the night to fill the big hole and every thing
come back to normality, of course with the cable
buoying. Hundred meters of cable were unburied using
water pumps and divers, then removed from the bottom
and carefully tied in to the splice platform.

Figure 9

Figure 7

Figure 10

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 As soon as the cable was exposed, the picture showed
in Figure 14, was taken. Polypropylene rovings were
removed, and noted that the outside diameter was
reduced in 20% by the impact of the trench excavator.
Later in the Figure 22, its possible appreciates how the
copper pressure maxi tube was compressed.

Figure 11

Figure 14

Figure 12

Figure 15
2. The second key factor was the platform and its
base. Please note the Figure 16 for details. The wide
surface of the base provided stability and avoided stilt
penetration in the soil. The platform was a four scaffold
metallic bodies, 2 meters high by 2 meters wide and 8
meters long, with wooden floor to fix the splice table.
Side and top protection based on translucent plastic,
was added to the platform Power for splicing machine,
dryer, lighting and power tools was provided by
contractor using a portable generator.

Figure 13

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Figure 16
3. The three key factor, appeared after final
splice was done and the cable began to be buried. To
provide similar protection, cement 12 inches diameter
pipes were longitudinally cut, and installed carefully,
providing the same conditions found when the cable
was recovered. Figures 16 and 17 show those details.
Figure 17
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Figure 18
4 THE WORK
Once the cable was exposed and the platform mounted,
began the procedure to fix the splicing table and its
logistic.
At that moment, every thing was ready to the real cable
cut. SDH Systems were operative, and the 24 hours
interruption permit was released, while the system were
restored by the Telecom’s Fiber optic east ring, who
shares the same landing point, and runs just one meter
far way to the north. The high risk of total interruption
lived when trencher was working, was present again,
but now due to the probability of cut in the east ring. As
informative note, this system was at that time a 2 ring, 8
fibers, 2.5 Gbps. At present restoration services for
Maya 1 and emergent technologies are enabled in those
routes.
Twenty hours after the programmed interruption,
several unexpected events affected the initial plan and
they were related with the capacity to go ahead of
mediocrity. The SA cable used in Telecom’s project is a
25 fibers cable, but it has 24 fibers terminated in the
ODF. Although the work team had spliced all the 25
fibers, 24 of them showed continuity to Tolu, the
correspondent station separated 160 km away. The
decision to rebuild the splice due to the loss of
continuity of the spare fiber was not seen as
catastrophic by the work team, although this decision
delayed the restoration one more day.
Heavy rains and a thunder storm completed that
difficult day. Part of the plastic protection was damaged
by the strong wind and steel wires from the cable
jacked left in plastic bags on the platform were thrown
to the sea. Please note the Figure 18
The second attempt to fuse the fibers was a success. All
25 fibers showed optical continuity, with attenuations
better than 33 dB. After end to end tests, the cable was
duly terminated with double steel wires, sealed and laid
on sea bottom. Figure 19, shows the cable ready be
deployed. Please note the pelican approval.
 Figure 19
With the service restored and all fibers working, it was
the time to protect the cable and bury it again. Here
resides the cheapest trick of the work. Cement pipes as
shown in Figure 20 were longitudinally cut and jointed
one by one in a daisy chain once the PVC pipe was
inserted along the cable. Figures 21 to 23 explain the
method employed to bury both pipes and cable.
Figure 21

Figure 20
Figure 22

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 5 CONCLUSIONS
On May 23, 2003, a similar event happened in another
festoons leg and the same procedure was utilized. Shore
end conditions were different but all principles were
exactly followed.
In brief, a good trench excavator, a metallic platform
adjusted in height to the local tide requirements with a
flat base to avoid stilt penetration in the soil, and
cement pipes with longitudinal trenches to introduce the
repaired cable, constitute the basic elements of this
proposal to reduce repair cost in countries where is
difficult to get this kind of services and are common
those events.

Figure 23
During two days two divers were burying the cable as
Figure 24 indicates. The beach was restored to the
initial conditions in less than one week. Figure 25

Figure 24

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