Very many construction projects commence with digging. This is because we live on the surface of planet Earth and when constructing a building it needs to have sturdy foundations: you can’t just set it down on the surface and hope that it will be OK. Equally, the vast majority of buildings need to have a supply of different services, and most of these – apart from some telephone cables coming from telegraph poles – are run underground because that is simply the best place to put them. Out of sight and out of the way.
However, for that very reason, it is essential to locate and identify underground services before you begin any digging because you don’t know exactly where they are, or for that matter what they are, and even if you obtain some plans, they are not always accurate.
An On-Site Survey Is Vital
This is why it is vital to undertake a survey of the site before any work commences, because if not, and you strike an underground service – whether with hand tools or a digger – you can easily damage it, and this can lead to serious consequences.
Apart from the cost of repairing the damaged utility, which of itself can be very expensive, there can be danger to life and limb. It is estimated that there are some 60,000 strikes of underground services in the UK every year, many of which cause serious injuries and on occasion are fatal.
Before beginning any excavation, it is essential to plan the work, and this begins with obtaining STATS, or plans, from the relevant utilities in the area. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, you cannot rely on STATS, but they can give a good starting point.
The most vital thing is to carry out an on-site survey in order to locate and identify underground services in the area where you need to dig, and this is done using the CAT and Genny, which are the names for the Cable Avoidance Tool and Signal Generator.
At Sygma Solutions we run training
courses for operatives who need to undertake these surveys because there are many
things to learn about the use of the CAT And Genny. In particular,
clever as these tools are, they do have certain limitations, and it is vital to
understand what these are. If you don’t, you could be in a position where you
commence digging, because it seems that there is nothing there, and then hit an
underground service that the CAT and Genny were unable to locate for one reason
or another.
