60,000 Cable Strikes A Year! That’s A BIG Number!

The construction industry is one of the most dangerous in which to work when it comes to injuries suffered and fatalities. Figures produced by the HSE show that there were an average 36 fatalities in construction from 2016 – 2021 (Source: RIDDOR, 2020/21). Of these, 50% are a result of falls from a height. However, around a dozen each year are the result of injuries suffered when striking underground services such as electricity cables, gas pipes, and so on.

When it comes to any sort of excavation work, it is estimated that there are some 4 million excavations carried out every year for the purpose of laying pipes or cables for new services and repairing existing ones, and this results in approximately 60,000 cable strikes each year. That may seem like a relatively small percentage, but nonetheless, 60,000 is a big number! You can very easily argue that it is 60,000 too many!

Why does this happen so often? Surely you can get plans from local utility companies in the site area and then you will know where cables and pipes run?

Well, yes and no. For any number of reasons, plans, or STATS as they are known, can often be inaccurate - not least because there is no unified way of keeping records - and sometimes they do not exist. You can use them as a guide, but you must treat them with caution.

The Answer Is A Thorough Underground Survey

 

The only answer is to undertake a thorough underground survey of the site before commencing any work, using the CAT and Genny, and also GPR.

But here’s the thing: figures from Safety & Health Practitioner in 2019 showed that of the 4 million excavations in 2017, only 2.25 million “involved a thorough search for pipes and cables before the work commenced”. That’s 44% of excavations that were carried out without a proper survey! Now you can begin to see why that figure of 60,000 cable strikes occurs.

At Sygma Solutions we provide HSG47 training (HSG47 is the guide produced by the HSE for safety when digging) which includes the use of the tools involved such as the C.Scope. Our C.Scope training teaches operatives the use of this tool in all modes, and importantly the limitations that it has. This is a vital constituent of our C.Scope training because all these tools - not just the C.Scope – can sometimes seem to indicate that nothing is on the site when it is!

So, our HSG47 training tells operatives what to look out for and how to handle it. For example, one situation is where the service is at a depth below which the tools can read! It is still there. So, we teach operatives to commence digging carefully down to about a foot, and then take another reading. This time around, it may well show the service.

A Qualification In Cable Avoidance Is Essential On Many Construction Sites

Possibly one of the most dangerous jobs in the construction industry occurs right at the beginning of a new building, because it involves digging into the ground in order to build the foundations.

The problem is that, when you dig down into the earth’s surface, even if only a few feet, there is always the chance of a cable strike. Virtually all of our utilities, apart from some areas where the phone lines are still on telegraph poles (remember those?) run underground. Out of sight, which is fine, but also out of mind in a lot of instances, which is not fine.

Whether you are using a hand shovel or a mechanical digger, it is possible to hit all sorts of different underground services such as gas, water, electricity, sewage pipes, telecoms, and more, unless the company carrying out the contract has carried out a full survey and obtained plans from the local utilities. On their own, plans cannot be relied upon for a number of different reasons, but they can be used as a guide.

A Thorough Survey Is Essential

This means that, before carrying out any sort of excavation work it is essential to undertake a thorough survey of the site using the CAT and Genny in order to avoid a cable strike and the resultant serious injuries that can occur. Once underground services have been located and identified it is then possible to mark them out on the ground surface so that workers will not unwittingly hit them when digging.

In order to locate and identify such services, operatives need to be fully conversant with every type of service and fully up to speed with the tools used to locate them, these being in large part the CAT and Genny, although GPR, Ground Penetrating Radar, is also used.

The latest technology is actually very clever, but it is not infallible. For instance, GPR can be difficult to use over rough ground. Some equipment may not be able to read as deeply as a service is laid. And more.

At Sygma Solutions we run training courses that teach operatives everything that they need to know. We should do, because between us we have over 100 years of experience. We can train operatives so that they can achieve a qualification for cable avoidance.

In more and more areas today, such as HS2, Network Rail, and many others, it is essential to have a qualification in cable avoidance before you are even allowed to work for them, so the training that we provide enables operatives to work on such sites.