We buy surplus and removed PILC cable

PILC is the old workhorse. Paper insulation, a lead sheath over it, and often steel tape or wire armour outside that, with an outer serving to hold the whole thing together. It served downtown networks and plant distribution for most of the last century, and plenty of it is still in the ground.

When a duct run is replaced, the removed cable arrives in the lengths it was pulled in, with the lead still on and the paper exposed wherever it was cut. That changes the handling, the transport and the paperwork. It also changes how the lot is reviewed, which starts with the sheath rather than the conductor.

Paper, lead and tape: reading a PILC length

Construction reads from the outside in. An outer serving, then armour if the run needed it, then the lead sheath, then paper tapes wound over the conductor. The voltage class comes from the paper thickness, which is why the tag or the original drawings matter more here than on a plastic-insulated cable.

A PILC length is measured along the lead, not along what is left of the conductor. Cut ends are where the information lives: whether the paper is dry and pale, whether compound has migrated, and whether the lead was sealed after the cut. Photograph both ends and the sheath along its length.

Downtown ducts and the cable coming out of them

The older duct banks under the city core and around the university carry PILC that has been in service for decades. Replacement work happens in short pulls between manholes, at night, with the street closed. What comes out is short, heavy and wet, and it has to leave the site the same shift.

That timing shapes the review. A lot assembled at the curb is not sorted the way a warehouse lot is. If the manhole locations and the pull lengths are known in advance, the review can be planned around them so nothing sits on a trailer waiting for a decision.

Sealed ends, oil weeping and the lead question

PILC compound moves. On a removed length the compound migrates toward whichever end is lower, and an unsealed end will weep for days. That matters twice: it tells a buyer how the cable was handled, and it tells the hauler what to expect inside the load. Seal or bag the ends before anything is stacked.

Lead is the other half of the conversation. A lead-sheathed cable is not ordinary copper scrap and it should not be mixed with it. Say plainly that the lot is lead covered, keep it separate, and expect questions about the quantity and the condition of the sheath before transport is arranged.

The densest PILC in the region sits under the streets between the Capitol and the university, where the duct system was built and rebuilt across several decades. Vaults and manholes there are tight, and a pull is measured in the distance between two of them.

Older industrial property along the rail corridors east of the city holds PILC in plant distribution as well, usually in duct banks between buildings. Both kinds of site are reviewed the same way, with access, sealing and lead handling settled before a pickup date is discussed.