For Stock Rigs Only

So I have a question involving electricity. Lets say, for example, I know a guy that was recently hand digging a hole for a new mailbox and low and behold- a buried cable made it's presence know, in the best of ways. The cable was right in the way of where the 6x6 wooden post should have gone, so the best compromise at the time was to push the pole against the back side of the hole and cable and carefully back fill all 30" to keep the mailbox post nice and sturdy. That's how I was told the story... I'm just curious about if there's any generic guide lines that tells a guy how far away a wooden post should be kept away from any buried cables. I'll relay the answer to my buddy.

 

The short answer is probably 3 ft. if we're trying to do a good job.

The long answer from a construction perspective is that you want to keep your structure from possibly contacting the cable, either through freeze/thaw movement, subsidence/sinking, or water action or maybe through a vehicle striking the structure and pushing it into the cable.

If you have 30" in the ground, I would stay that far away so that the post never shifts or tips and levers the bottom of the post into the cable.

If this is just some wire the homeowner or someone ran for convenience, it's probably not critical but if it was to the pole from the house or a main line, I would be very conservative. Those are dangerous and expensive and sometimes they try to make you pay if you damage them.