Any company that is about to undertake any sort of work that involves digging or excavating the ground must first take every possible step to avoid striking any underground services that may be in the area.
The fact is that they can be anywhere. Some places like the local high street will rather obviously have all sorts of underground services in the roadway or under the pavements, but there are many other places where they may be, although it may not be obvious. The very first thing to do is to contact utilities in the area and obtain STATS, or plans, but these must not be regarded as 100% accurate since in some cases they are not.
This means that it is necessary to carry out a survey of the area involved in the excavation in order to double-check the STATS and locate services even if there are no STATS, which can also be the case.
Most reputable contractors take every precaution, but the simple fact is that there are still some 60,000 strikes of underground services every year, many resulting in injury and some fatal. That comes out to around 230 every working day.
The tools used to locate and identify underground services are the CAT and the Genny. CAT and Genny training on a recognised CAT course using the latest CAT 4 is essential for anyone who will use them, as they have their limitations. It is vital that operatives are trained to the highest standards in order to avoid cable strikes and there are some organisations that recognise certain courses as being of the required calibre. These include The Survey Association, CSCS, and EUSR. So, for example, one might undertake an EUSR CAT and Genny training course which would result in the award of an EUSR card if the training resulted in a pass.
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