Subaqueous cable · Georgia
We buy submarine and subaqueous power cable
Cable that spends its life under water, armored against anchors and abrasion and built to keep water out of the strand. Once it has been lifted, it is almost never re-laid, which changes what a lot is worth.
- Wire armor
- Water blocked
- River and marsh
01Overview
What this page covers
Georgia has a lot of water to cross. The Savannah and the Altamaha, the Ocmulgee and the Chattahoochee, the lakes behind the federal dams, and the marsh behind the barrier islands. Every one of those crossings needs cable that can lie on a bed, take an anchor drag and keep water out of the insulation for decades.
That is a different construction from anything on a pole or in a duct: heavier sheath, water-blocking tapes and compound, bedding and armor, and a serving over the armor. The cable is also installed by a specialist spread from a barge, so a lot usually appears when a crossing is replaced rather than when a utility cleans out a warehouse. A crossing is replaced after a fault or before a dredging program, and the old length comes up in one piece or in sections between joints.
02Specification
What a subaqueous lot contains
- Voltage
- 15 kV to 69 kV; 115 kV on larger crossings
- Conductor
- Copper or aluminum, 1/0 through 1,000 kcmil
- Insulation
- XLPE, or paper and lead on older crossings
- Water blocking
- Swellable tapes, flooding compound, filled strand
- Armor
- Double galvanized steel wire over polypropylene bedding and serving
- Lengths
- 500 to 5,000 ft continuous, with slack loops at each landfall
- Joints
- Factory armor joints; repair joints in a shell
- Condition
- In service, decommissioned, anchor damaged, wet, cut in sections
Look at the serving and the armor wires at the cut end. Bright wire under intact serving means the cable was dry; black wire and swollen bedding mean it was not.
03Cable we buy
Cable we buy
Armored XLPE crossing cable
The modern build: XLPE insulation, a metallic sheath or a copper shield, water-blocking tapes, bedding, double steel wire armor and an outer serving. Heavy, stiff, and the armor is a substantial part of the weight.
Paper and lead submarine cable
Older crossings, with impregnated paper insulation under a lead sheath and armor over it. The lead is the moisture barrier, and a lead sheath that has been flexed by tidal movement will have cracked somewhere.
Repair joints and slack loops
Joints made in a shell after a fault, and the slack coils left at each landfall. The slack is often the cleanest cable in the lot, because it never lay on the bed.
Armor, serving and fittings
Galvanised wire armor, polypropylene yarn, and the terminations and glands at each end. Armor is recovered as steel, and the glands are counted with the cable.
04Evaluation
How a subaqueous lot is reviewed
The history first: which crossing, when it was laid, whether it failed or was replaced, and whether the ends were sealed when it came up. A cable lifted after a fault has a damaged section, and the review starts by finding where that section is.
Then the armor and the sheath. Armor wires that are pitted through are scrap; armor that is sound goes as galvanized steel. The sheath under it decides whether the insulation survived, and a lead sheath with a crack means water has been at the paper for a long time.
Quantity is straightforward once the cable is on land, because the length came up in one piece or in cut sections. Sections are measured and listed separately. A lot of short sections is a copper and lead recovery job with a steel component, and it is reviewed that way.
Armor wire is stored energy. Cutting steel wire armor on a tensioned or coiled cable releases wires that whip, and the ends are sharp enough to take a hand. The other hazards belong to the water: work from a barge or a bank is a drowning and fall risk, a cable under scour can shift without warning, and the shore end may still be connected at a riser.
05Seller terms
Before you sell: how it works
Four things a seller should be able to pin down before a truck is booked.
Verification
Footage is checked against the reel tag, the sequential marks on the jacket, the wrap count against the barrel, or a published weight per 1,000 ft — whichever the reel actually supports.
Payment
Payment method and timing are agreed in writing for the specific lot before anything is loaded or moved. No verbal number is treated as an agreement.
Paperwork
A bill of sale for the lot, and for utility material the owning utility’s release reference. Neither is optional and neither is created after the fact.
Freight
Collection is arranged as part of the terms. Say what can lift the reels and whether a 53-foot trailer can reach them, and the pickup is planned around that.
Sending a reel list and photographs costs nothing. A review is not a purchase, and nothing is bought, moved or scheduled until written lot terms are agreed for that material. Request a pickup when the lot is ready.
07Questions
Submarine cable questions
Is submarine cable ever re-used?
Rarely. Re-laying a crossing needs a marine spread and a new route survey, so the cable is normally replaced and the old length is recovered.
What is the armor worth?
It is galvanized steel wire, recovered as steel weight. Where the armor is sound it is a larger part of the tonnage than sellers expect.
How do you know if a lifted cable took water?
From the sheath and the water-blocking at a cut end. Swollen tapes, black armor wire and a wet, soft filling all say the cable was wet in service.
Do you buy cable that came up in short sections?
Yes, as recovery material. List the sections by length so the copper and lead can be estimated rather than guessed.
Send the crossing history and the section lengths
Which crossing, when it was laid, why it came up and whether the ends were sealed decides most of a subaqueous review.