Striking Underground Services Can Result In Heavy Fines

Striking underground services can result in serious injury to workers and can also involve contractors in heavy fines. According to Construction News, just ten days ago VolkerInfra and Siemens Energy were hit with fines totalling a combined £1.8 million at Manchester Magistrates Court after a worker suffered a damaged retina as a result of an explosion caused by a cable strike during construction work at a substation.

This is not just a one-off issue either. According to the Health and Safety Executive, between April and December last year, three construction workers died from the handling of electricity. This was the second highest cause of death after falls from height. That is just fatalities alone, never mind the many serious injuries caused on top of that. And that is only electricity. Striking many other services can cause injuries, too, such as gas pipes, sewage pipes, and even water under pressure.

All of which is why it is absolutely essential to take all possible steps to locate and identify underground services whenever any excavation work is required. Obviously, one needs to obtain plans from utilities in the area, but by far the most important thing is to carry out a thorough survey of the site where excavation is to take place before work commences.

A Trained Surveyor

Naturally, this requires the services of a trained surveyor equipped with the appropriate tools – the CAT and Genny. These tools can locate most underground services when used in combination, but they do have certain limitations, so it is essential that operatives are aware of these.

This is why we provide CAT training on our courses at Sygma Solutions. We are recognised as one of the foremost providers of CAT courses in the UK, and our CAT courses are approved by the CITB, CSCS, EUSR, and The Survey Association.

Our team has a combined experience of over 100 years in the use of the CAT and Genny, and we are also experts on the Mala Easy Locator GPR equipment. In fact, we are the sole UK service agent for Mala equipment, and we can service and calibrate the Mala HDR and HDR Pro. We also have five Mala IXM units for hire with supporting GPS and 3D Grid option.

So, if you need CAT training for any of your team members, book them in on one of our courses. The classroom part of the courses can be taken either in a physical location or online in an interactive live class where attendees can ask questions and get answers from the instructor.