PILC cable buyers in New York

Why New York still has so much of it

The city's distribution system was built in duct, and PILC was the standard cable for duct work for most of the twentieth century. Concrete duct banks run under the streets between manholes, and the cable inside them has to survive occasional water, so a hermetic lead sheath was the right answer for a very long time. Much of that cable is still in service, which is why removals keep producing it.

The voltage classes you see are the classes the city uses: 5 kV and 4 kV legacy network work, 15 kV class feeders, 27 kV and 35 kV where the system was upgraded. A three-conductor 15 kV belted length is the bread-and-butter item; a single-conductor 27 kV shielded length is a different and heavier proposition.

Identifying it at a cut end

A cut end tells you almost everything, and it takes less than a minute. Score the outer serving and peel it back: jute or bitumen tape over steel tape armour is the classic build. Under the armour is bedding, and under that the lead. Lead is soft, gray, and dents with a thumbnail; it cuts with a knife and does not spring back the way copper does. Cut the lead back and the paper is unmistakable — thin crepe tapes wound in layers, usually pale yellow to brown, that unwind when you pick at them, with a smell of mineral oil.

The conductor is the last layer: stranded copper, bright if it has been protected, dark green if moisture has been at it. Tinned strands on older cable are normal and not a defect. If there is a hollow core or a channel in the conductor, the cable is oil-filled rather than solid-type, and that changes both the value and the handling.

Wiped joints, splices and why the joints matter

PILC is joined by hand. The lead sheath is opened, the conductors are spliced, the insulation is rebuilt with paper or a premoulded joint body, and the whole thing is re-sheathed with a lead sleeve that is wiped into the original sheath with solder. A wiped joint is a skilled, slow, disappearing trade, and the wipes are also where most of the lead in a removed run sits.

For a seller this matters in two ways. A run that comes out with its joints intact is heavier and carries more lead than a clean length, and a joint casing is a solid piece of lead rather than a thin sheath. And a length that was cut at every joint is shorter and less useful than one that came out whole, though at distribution class most of it was cut at the manholes anyway.

Lead, oil and handling

Two materials make PILC a different kind of job from extruded cable. Lead is toxic, and handling it produces dust and, if it is cut with a power tool or heated, fume. Removal is done by the owner's qualified personnel on de-energised, released circuits, with the lead handled as a hazardous material under the owner's procedures and applicable federal and state rules; it is not something to burn, grind or sweep up casually. The impregnant is an oil, so cut cable drains, and older fluid should be tested rather than assumed clean, because some legacy dielectric fluids contain PCBs.

None of that makes the cable worthless — lead and copper are both recovery metals with established routes — but it does mean a lot should be described honestly, stored on a containment surface rather than on bare ground, and moved by people who know what is in it. This page describes handling, not compliance; the owner's environmental and safety procedures govern the job.

• De-energise and release through the owner's switching procedure before any removal
• Cut and coil on containment, not on soil, and keep the ends from draining into a yard
• Treat lead as a hazardous material in handling, storage and transport
• Test older impregnant before assuming it is clean
• Describe the construction and approximate copper and lead content in the enquiry