Undertaking Any Type Of Excavation Work Can Be Dangerous

Undertaking any sort of excavation on public roads, as well as many other places, can be fraught with danger. The reason is that there are underground services of all sorts including electricity cables, water pipes, gas pipes, telecoms, sewage pipes, and they can be anywhere. We all have electricity in our homes, and most have telephone landline connections. We all have water pipes and we all use sewage pipes. Many properties also use gas, and then there are fibre-optics and other services as well.

Striking one of these will cause damage to the service at the very least and may mean that businesses are interrupted and/or people are left sitting in the dark at 4.00 pm on a winter’s afternoon. For example, if a telephone cable is cut, it can mean that there is no internet access, which in turn is going to affect the income of any business that depends on it for its’ operation.

Read more: cable avoidance

Training In the Use Of The CAT And Genny Is Essential For A Surveyor

Before undertaking any sort of excavation work, it is critical to ascertain whether there are any underground services in the area, or close by, that is going to be worked. The simple fact is that there are estimated to be 2.5 million kilometres of underground services in the UK – give or take – and they can be anywhere and everywhere.

Striking underground services can cause little damage other than disruption of the service until it is repaired. Alternatively, it can cause untold damage and lead to severe injury, and in certain cases is fatal. That’s not “CAN” be fatal, but IS fatal in around a dozen cases every year. Indeed, overall, there are approximately 60,000 cable strikes in the UK every year which is a lot of damage and a lot of cost, in addition to death and injury.

Unfortunately, prodding the ground with a long pole where you are going to dig is not going to work. You need to use tools such as the CAT and Genny in order to successfully locate and identify underground services so that they can be avoided. Buying a CAT and Genny and reading the instructions in the box is not going to provide sufficient information: if it did, there wouldn’t be 60,000 cable strikes a year.

It is essential for anyone who is planning to carry out surveys for the location and identification of underground services to take a CAT course provided by one of the training companies in the UK. These people are specialists who can teach exactly how to use the tools through CAT training, and most importantly what the limitations are.

That may come as a shock, but the fact is that the CAT and Genny DO have limitations. That means that – unless you fully understand them – you could make a serious mistake, with disastrous consequences. 

Location Of Underground Services Is Critical Before Any Excavation Work

Many contractors need to carry out some sort of excavation work very often. When you need to create a new build, it needs foundations, which involves digging. Street works almost always involve excavation. Ground works contractors, by definition, spend their lives digging.

The problem is that, wherever you need to dig, there may be underground services. In many places, such as pavements and roadworks, there almost certainly will be underground services, although it is possible that there may not be in a little used country lane. Even so, there could be.

Read more : Cable Avoidance