2026-08-18
Seven data points missing from almost every OPGW tender
An OPGW tender without short-circuit current or a span table cannot be priced seriously. You can put a number on it, but it is a bet.
OPGW is sized as an earth wire, not as a communications cable
That is the original confusion. OPGW performs an electrical function: it is the conductor that protects the line from lightning and carries fault current to earth. The fibre travels inside, but it is not what defines the cross-section or the alloy. A tender describing OPGW only by fibre count is describing half the product.
1 and 2 · Short-circuit current and fault duration
The current-time pair determines the thermal energy the cable must withstand without degrading the fibre. In practice it defines the aluminium and steel cross-section. A tender stating 40 kA without saying whether the fault lasts 0.2 or 0.5 seconds leaves open a difference paid in dollars per metre.
3 · Span table and ruling span
Without span distribution and ruling span there is no way to calculate stringing tension or verify sag, nor to decide where dampers go. A calculation based on an invented average span is good for budgeting, not for stringing.
4 · Diameter, weight and permissible tension
These three values drive the structural check of existing towers. On an uprating project, replacing the earth wire with a heavier one can force reinforcements that multiply civil works cost.
5 · Shielding angle
It defines the OPGW position on the crossarm and therefore the hardware. If the tender omits it and the shielding calculation is done later, the fittings change and so does the take-off.
6 · Reel plan
The reel plan turns a total length into a purchase list. With the same number of metres you can end up with twenty splices or fifty, depending on how reels are cut. Each splice is a closure, a slack loop, a crew day and a measurement.
7 · Splice matrix
Which fibre enters and leaves at each point. This is not an execution detail: it determines whether the closure needs two or four ports, and whether rodent-resistant fibre is required on down-leads. Closures are pressure-sealed; reopening one to fix an allocation means redoing the splice and re-measuring the whole section.
What to do when the tender omits them
Raise them as formal queries before the deadline, and if there is no answer, price on unit rates with the assumptions stated in writing in the offer. That is the difference between a defensible bid and one that collapses in the first negotiation.
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