Areas · Prince William County
Reels and spools in Gainesville: I-66, new campuses and the Haymarket line
GAINESVILLE, Va. — Gainesville, ZIP 20155, with Haymarket in 20169, sits on I-66 at the western edge of Prince William County, where data-centre campuses, new neighbourhoods and the transmission lines to serve them have spread west in recent years. The desk collects reels from that work and delivers spools to venues and farms nearby.
From the reel desk · Checked 9 November 2026
Schematic line map, not to survey: Gainesville marked, with I-66 drawn heavier. The Potomac, the Anacostia, the District line and the Beltway are drawn for bearings.
Fact box: Gainesville
- ZIPs
- 20155, 20169 (Haymarket)
- Planned campus
- Gainesville Crossing (Corscale, 2022 plans)
- Transmission
- Morrisville to Wishing Star 500 kV through Prince William (filed 2026)
- Main roads
- I-66, US-29, US-15, Route 55
A crossroads moving west
Gainesville grew where US-29 meets I-66, and in the past two decades its farms have become shopping centres, neighbourhoods and, more recently, data-centre campuses. Haymarket, a small town just to the west, has grown alongside it. Beyond them is Fauquier County’s farm country.
Data centres
In 2022 Data Center Frontier reported that Corscale was planning a campus called Gainesville Crossing, and named other campuses in the county belonging to Amazon Web Services, CloudHQ, Iron Mountain and QTS. Those figures are years old, and the county has grown since; we cite them because they are the latest we could check. A data-centre building leaves hundreds of empty reels during its fit-out.
Transmission
Loudoun County’s transmission page describes Dominion’s Morrisville to Wishing Star 500 kV line, filed in February 2026, which runs from Fauquier through Prince William to the Wishing Star substation near Arcola. Line work through western Prince William means conductor on large reels, most of it steel and returnable, and cable for substations on wooden reels.
Builders
Neighbourhoods, schools and shopping centres around Gainesville and Haymarket produce building wire and feeder reels. Builders’ sites usually have room for a truck and a pile of reels, which makes for simple pickups.
How pickups work
- Campus sites: badging, gate hours and the site’s traffic plan; steel set aside.
- Builders and contractors: counts by size and build, photos, equipment on site.
- One-off reels from homes: collected on runs through the area.
Venues and farms
Gainesville and Haymarket have wineries, event venues and horse farms nearby. Venues ask for sets of matching table reels; farms ask for large reels for hose and fencing. Plan ahead for matching sets: the desk has to gather reels of one size and build.
Getting here
I-66 runs east toward Manassas and Fairfax and west toward Front Royal. US-29 runs northeast toward Centreville and southwest toward Warrenton. US-15 runs north toward Leesburg. Route 55 runs west through Haymarket.
Sending a request from Gainesville
- Count and measure. Count the reels and measure the largest flange edge to edge across the face. A photo with the tape in it is better than a guess.
- Check the build. Nailed lumber, plywood sheet, steel or plastic. Look for a stencil or tag naming the maker and the reel number.
- Set aside steel and tagged returnables with their serial numbers. Those go back to the maker, not to the desk.
- Say where they stand: yard, dock, garage level, alley or curb, plus clearance, gate hours, badging or escort a driver needs.
- Say what loads them: forklift, pallet jack, loader, ramp, or only people. Reels over 42 inches weigh more than 100 lb empty.
- Say how often: one time, weekly, monthly or at each job close-out.
- Buying instead? Give the flange and height you want, how many, and how the reel gets from the truck to where it will sit.
- No form handy? Email info@dcwoodenspools.com with the same details and a few photos.
Reels you are likely to have
| Reel | Build | Flange | Traverse | Drum | Lb | Usually carries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-5 | Nailed wood | 23 | 17 | 12 | 34 | Copper building wire, grounding |
| A-10 | Nailed wood | 30 | 22 | 16 | 66 | Service drop, bare aluminium |
| N-24 | Nailed wood | 36 | 28 | 14 | 83 | Insulated and multiplex cable |
| A-29 | Nailed wood | 42 | 28 | 21 | 154 | Overhead conductor, feeders |
| A-38 | Nailed wood | 48 | 28 | 24 | 212 | Aluminium and ACSR, large feeders |
| A-62 | Nailed wood | 60 | 28 | 28 | 397 | Utility conductor |
| A-76 | Nailed wood | 66 | 28 | 30 | 473 | Heavy conductor |
| S-120 | Steel, returnable | 84 | 36 | 42 | 895 | Transmission and medium voltage |
Other makers' reels differ by an inch or two. All flange sizes · How to measure
Questions the desk gets
Can a venue order a set of matching reels?
Yes. Say how many, the size and the date. Matching sets take time to gather.
Does the desk cover Haymarket?
Yes. Haymarket (20169) is covered with Gainesville.
Sources
Each opened and read on 9 November 2026.
- Data Center Frontier, Prince William County weighs proposals that could accelerate data center growth (8 August 2022): 33 existing data centres, 5.49 million sq ft, 13 under construction, 29 in the Data Center Overlay District created in 2016
- Loudoun County, Transmission Lines in Loudoun County: status of Aspen to Golden, Golden to Mars, BECO to Firehouse, Evergreen Mills, Global Plaza Extension, Mars to Wishing Star and the Potomac Edison Goose Creek rebuild