The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recently issued the country’s first National Standard for underground enclosure integrity. The new ANSI/SCTE 77 2002 standard was developed to help ensure the integrity of underground enclosures and is applicable to any material and industry where the long-term performance of underground enclosures is desired.
The intent of ANSI/SCTE 77 is to prevent performance problems and minimize liability issues by establishing conformance tests and requirements that underground enclosures must meet to help ensure long service life with minimal maintenance. A copy of the standard may be purchased from ANSI or a pdf file of the standard may be found on SCTE’s website, www.scte.org, by clicking on the “Standards” button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, clicking on the “Standards Available” link on the left-hand side of the screen, and then scrolling down to find the standard.
The standard sets forth minimum testing requirements that underground enclosures must meet, including accelerated service exposure, tested in accordance to ASTM D756 Procedure E; chemical resistance, tested in accordance to ASTM D543, section 7; simulated sunlight exposure, tested in accordance to ASTM G154; water absorption, tested in accordance to ASTM D570, sections 5,6,1 and 6.5; flammability; and cover impact resistance, tested in accordance to ASTM D2444.
