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.