Cable reel shipping to the pull site

A campus runs on miles of cable

Between the substation, the generator yard, the electrical rooms and the data halls, a data center pulls miles of medium voltage and feeder cable, and all of it arrives on reels. A reel of medium voltage cable can be seven or eight feet in diameter and weigh 8,000 to 15,000 pounds, which is more than a forklift at a job site can lift without the right attachment. Fiber and network cable comes on smaller reels, boxed or shrink wrapped, and ships in vans. Conduit, cable tray and bus duct ship on flatbeds in bundles.

Reels are round, which is the whole problem. A reel that is not chocked and chained properly rolls on the trailer, and a reel that is laid on its side crushes the cable on the bottom layers. The securement rules for reels are specific, and the carriers we use for them know them.

Flatbed or van

Large reels ride on flatbeds, standing on their flanges, with chocks nailed or strapped to the deck on both sides and chains over the arbor or through the flange holes, so the reel cannot roll or shift under braking. Several reels of mixed sizes are loaded heaviest over the axles and chocked separately. Smaller reels that fit through a van door and under the roof ride in our 53 foot dry vans or in a partner carrier's van, chocked and strapped to the logistics track, which keeps them dry and out of sight. Fiber and data cable almost always travels in vans.

Cable is rarely over width or over height, so a reel load is seldom a permitted move, but it is often heavy: a full flatbed of medium voltage cable reaches the legal weight limit before it runs out of deck space, and we plan the load so the axle weights work.

Delivery at the pull site

Cable is pulled where it is needed, which may be at a manhole in the yard, a cable vault at the substation, or a corridor inside the building. The reel has to be set on a reel stand or a jack at that point, and the forklift or crane that does it has to be rated for the reel. We confirm the unloading equipment and the set down location before dispatch, and we can deliver reels in the order the electrical crew will pull them so the first reel off the trailer is the first one needed.

For a large campus the cable often arrives over weeks as the electrical work advances, and we run it as a series of scheduled flatbed and van deliveries rather than one load at the start that sits in the yard in the weather.

Routes and the usual trips

Cable comes from manufacturers and distributors in Southern California, the Inland Empire, the Phoenix area and the Bay Area, and goes to sites across the West on lanes our trucks and partner carriers already work: Interstate 10 to the Phoenix area, Interstate 15 to Las Vegas, St. George and the Wasatch Front, Interstate 5 to Sacramento, Portland and the Puget Sound, and Interstate 80 to the Reno area. Reels are indifferent to weather, but the crews that pull them are not, so winter deliveries to the northern sites are timed to the crew's schedule as much as to the road.

What we need to quote

• Number of reels, with the diameter, width and weight of each
• Whether the reels are wood or steel, and whether the cable is wrapped or exposed on the reel
• Pickup at the manufacturer or distributor, with its loading equipment and hours
• Delivery point on the site, the unloading equipment and the hours the site receives
• The pull schedule, if the cable should arrive in sequence