Patent ID: 7235960

Claim:
A system for selectively grounding each of a plurality of short-haul buried utility conveyances coupled to a common long-haul buried utility conveyance to enable a conveyance locating signal transmitted through the long-haul conveyance to travel from the long-haul utility conveyance to a selected short-haul utility conveyance comprising: a first switch for selecting each of the plurality of short-haul utility conveyances to be grounded; and a grounding switch for grounding each short-haul utility conveyance, the grounding switch being responsive to a control signal enabled by selection of the first switch, wherein the first switch is an optical switch coupled to a fiber distribution panel and a plurality of optical fibers connect the fiber distribution panel to a fiber distribution panel associated with each short-haul utility conveyance, and the grounding switch is connected to each fiber distribution panel associated with each short-haul utility conveyance.