Some Things To Consider When Investing In Cable Avoidance Tools

There are quite a number of manufacturers that produce cable avoidance tools, some of which are great, some of which are “OK”, and some you wouldn’t give to your worst enemy. If you are working in the sector of location of underground services, it is essential to be able to distinguish between a top quality and reliable cable avoidance tool and a budget model with limited functionality.

Our Courses Are Perfect To Enable You To Gain The Qualifications You Need

At Sygma Solutions we are regarded as the foremost provider of training in the location and identification of underground services in the UK. Our team has over 100 years of combined experience in the use of the CAT and Genny, and GPR – Ground penetrating Radar – in particular the Mala series of locators. Indeed, we are the sole UK distributor of the Mala Easy Locator and we have them for sale and for hire. We also undertake all calibration work on the Easy Locator.

HSG47 Is A Guide Issued By The HSE For Those Involved In Any Sort Of Excavation

HSG47 is the guide issued by the Health and Safety Executive for people who have to plan, manage, or carry out work on or near underground services. This applies to people who work for water supply companies, gas supply, telecoms, electricity, and others, and, of course, construction companies who are working on a project of a new building or buildings because the very first task is to dig down into the earth in order to build the foundations.

Thorough Training Is Needed In Order To Fully Understand The CAT And Genny

One of the biggest dangers in the construction industry is that of injury to workers. There are dangers at all stages of a project that need to be managed in order to minimise the ever-present possibilities of injury or death. Accidents occur all the time.

Virtually every construction project begins with excavation of the ground in order to build foundations for a building and to lay service pipes and cables. The problem is that in very many cases on a building site, there may well be existing services that run across it or alongside it and it is essential to avoid hitting these with a pick, shovel, or for that matter a JCB.

A Qualification In Cable Avoidance Enables You To Work On Sites Like HS2

When carrying out any sort of construction contract, unless it is a refurbishment project, there is one thing that is common to all, and that is that it is necessary to dig into the ground. Buildings need foundations. They also need all the services that a building requires – water, sewage pipes, telecoms, electricity, maybe gas, and more.

Striking Underground Services Can Cause Serious Injury And Even Be Fatal

HSG47 is issued by the Health & Safety Executive and is entitled “Avoiding Danger From Underground Services”. That says it all really, because avoiding striking underground services when carrying out any sort of excavation work is critical. Virtually all of our utilities run underground, and if you hit one of them, the very least that is going to happen is that the work will come to a halt and there is going to be a cost to restoring them.

Learn The Basics Of CAT And Genny Training Online

Every operative who is required to undertake site surveying for the purpose of locating and identifying underground services needs thorough training in the use of the CAT and Genny. These are clever tools, especially when used in combination, but you need to know and understand how to use them in their various modes, and most importantly, understand that they do have certain limitations, and what those limitations are.

CAT And Genny Training Is Essential For Operatives Who Need To Do Underground Surveys

Unintentionally striking underground services when carrying out any form of excavation work can cause life-changing injuries to construction workers and are sometimes fatal. It is calculated that there are some 4 million contracts involving excavation in the UK every year, and figures show that in 2017 only 2.25 million of these involved a thorough search for underground pipes and cables before the work began. That means that 44% of those excavations took place without any attempt to determine if there were buried assets where digging took place!

CAT And Genny Training: The Basics

Any sort of construction project which involves digging – which is the vast majority of construction projects – requires a considerable amount of planning before commencing work. Let’s face it, when you are constructing a building, the first thing that you need to do is to create the foundations. Certainly, some projects are concerned with restoring a building or changing it around for a new purpose, but any new build project is going to involve digging as the first stage of the work.

If You Need To Locate Underground Services, You Need An Approved Course

If you work in the construction industry and your job includes locating and identifying underground services on a site where excavation is due to take place, it is vital to undertake a CAT and Genny course such as those that we provide at Sygma Solutions.  

You cannot just take the CAT and Genny out of the box and read the instructions because there is far more to it than that. It would be just too easy to make mistakes without the proper training. For example, and we have said this before, but it is worth repeating, you might use the CAT and Genny and decide that there is nothing in the site where you are going to dig. So, you start digging away and suddenly hit a cable or gas pipe for instance.