What Can You Learn by Undertaking a EUSR CAT & Genny Course?

The CAT & Genny training course is specifically designed to give supervisors and operatives in-depth knowledge of how to conduct cable avoidance operations in a safe and secure manner. As a matter of fact, there are several main contractors and businesses that do not allow the work to process unless a survey has been carried out but a trained surveyor who is qualified to the standards of EUSR.

EUSR or the Energy and Utilities Skills Register is a completely independent body that requires surveyors to be trained to the highest level. Only after assessing the training of the surveyor, this recognised body awards the trainer with a EUSR card, which enables the surveyor to work on various projects like, HS2.

By undertaking a EUSR CAT and Genny course, you will be able to learn the following:

• Be able to safely use a pipe detector or cable detector when sent to an excavation site
• You will be capable of identifying and reading electricity, gas, telecom and water service plans by using specialised equipment.
• Identify undamaged, as well as, damaged underground utility services with the use of penetrating radar and such tools
• Gain proper understanding of the guidelines of underground services and the effects of a cable strike
• Identify and locate buried utility services by learning the right use and limitations of the CAT & Genny
• Be able to complete plans that show that the services have been detected and excavation work can proceed safely

EUSR CAT & Genny training programmes are offered by several professional companies. By undertaking this course, you will be ensuring the safety of your workers and yourself, along with the people living near the excavation site. Also, you will not be adding to the 60,000 cable strikes that the UK experience each year.

The Considerable Ramifications of Cable Strikes When Excavating

All of those involved in planning and managing excavation work of any description should be trained in the use of the Cable Avoidance Tool and the Signal Generator, known as the CAT and Genny. Theoretically, the CAT can be used on it' own but it can only locate electric cables which are live with power running through them, so the CAT and Genny are used in combination in order to locate electric cables that are not live and to locate all other types of services.

Even though they are used in combination, they do have certain limitations, and the only way to fully understand how they operate in all modes is to undertake a CAT and Genny training course. There are specialist companies that will provide a CAT and Genny course, which can be attended by operatives engaged in underground excavation work, and where they will learn every detail of these tools and how to use them in all different types of situations. 

Even so, there are some 60,000 underground services strikes every year because many operatives are not fully trained in the use of the CAT and Genny and therefore make mistakes as a result. This causes severe injuries in many cases, and these are occasionally fatal.

At the very least, cable and other utility strikes cause a delay in the project, because the utility concerned will have to send out men to undertake repairs, and there may be considerable other ramifications for a contractor who caused the problem. These can include the cost of men standing around idle, costs from the main contractor, associated costs from companies affected by, say, the loss of power, and the courts may also award considerable damages to someone who has been injured.

Some training companies are recognised by the Energy and Utility Skills Register and provide an EUSR Cat and Genny course to those appropriate standards.