When undertaking any sort of excavation work in the UK, it is vital to ensure, as far as humanly possible, that any underground services in the vicinity are marked and plotted so that when digging commences they can be avoided.

There are far too many utility strikes in the UK every year as a direct result of contractors or workers being unaware that they are there. In fact, it is thought that there are some 60,000 strikes of utilities each year, many of which result in injury to workers and in some cases are fatal. Many of these could be avoided if proper procedure was followed before commencing to dig.

One of the most obvious things to do is to check with the local utility companies before arriving on site. However, it should be noted that utility companies record and store their information in different ways, so this can lead to confusion. On top of that, the information may not be complete, may not be accurate, and may not even exist in the first place. Even if the information is available, it should only ever be regarded as a guide, not as gospel.

What is even worse is that many contractors carry out excavation without carrying out any checks. Recent research by the Energy Networks Association showed that 31% of workers do not always check for underground cables (https://www.utilitystrikeavoidancegroup.org/news-and-comment). When they were surveyed, 93% of construction workers and industry professionals believed that they always dig safely, yet 31% admitted that they didn’t always check. The reasons given were that they didn’t think it was their responsibility (15%), while 24% believed that they were not going to dig deep enough to hit anything.

Underground services can, in fact, run at any depth below the surface, and electricity cables can carry voltages of 230 volts (domestic voltage) and up to several thousand volts. What is worrying is that 15% of those surveyed said that if they came across an electricity cable encased in concrete, they would attempt to break it out. This would put them at immediate risk of life-threatening injuries. The ENA found that the failure to check for underground services when carrying out excavation work had led to an increase of between 20% and 30% in incidents throughout the UK.

Indeed, last autumn, the Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks highlighted a trend of increased damage to electricity cables. In the previous two months, they had seen 445 cases of damage to cables which was an increase of 20% over the same period in 2019. Some of the damage was on domestic premises with construction activities such as fencing and laying of driveways. They gave the following advice:

• Obtain up-to-date underground cable record plans.
• Be aware that underground cables can be found at any depth, even just below the surface.
• Ensure a competent person uses a Cable Avoidance Tool (CAT)
• Mark the location of cables on the ground surface and dig trial holes to determine the exact position before using a mechanical excavator.
• If you find an underground cable embedded in concrete do not attempt to break it out. Contact us for specific advice.
• If you damage an underground cable, vacate the excavation immediately, call 105 and keep everyone clear.

Carrying out a thorough survey of the area where you are going to dig is essential, and it is necessary to conduct it using the CAT and Genny in combination in order to locate all types of service that may be in the vicinity. It is also essential that anyone who is going to undertake such a survey has the proper training, such as that which we provide at Sygma Solutions.

Our Utility Surveyor Training Course covers the use of the CAT and Genny in great detail because between them they can operate in up to 15 different modes. They also have certain limitations, and it is vital to understand what those limitations are because if not, you could think that there is nothing where you are going to dig, when in fact, there is.

Our courses are available both in-class and online, and we use a fully interactive web platform so that attendees can ask questions and get answers. We also undertake full on-site training in order to ensure that when you have finished the course you will know everything that there is to know.