Do you need to produce cable pulling calculations for unducted cable installation in the ground? 1

[electrical429]

I always assumed that cable pulling calculations need to be produced for both ducted and unducted cable installations. Because when cables are installed unducted they will still be pulled inside the trench using rollers. However, I recently received a comment on my design saying that if cables were to be installed unducted cable pulling calcs would not be required. Which led me to wonder if unducted cables can be laid instead of pulled using a vehicle which houses cable drum and moves from A to B "unrolling" the cable into the trench. Is that the case?

 

[Palletjack]

I have never “pulled” a conductor through a trench that needed a tension calculation. The cable is generally rolled out on long spans or pulled by hand for short runs and fed into the trench.

How would you calculate sidewall tension of dirt with/without lube?

Maybe someone has somewhere, but I couldn’t imagine why.

 

[bacon4life]

Palletjack summed up my experience. I'll also add that most folks in my area have stopped putting in direct buried cable.

An example of a machine unrolling fiber duct into the dirt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsIJf9yn_E4.

In some cases folks use this kind of a machine to bury both the conduit and conductors at the same time.