Our Utility Mapping Course Teaches Everything You Need To Know

If you were in need of surgery for something such as an appendix removal, or a heart problem, how would you feel if the surgeon told you that he was going to do it with the lights in the operating theatre switched off?

Yes. Right!

Not likely. Yet this is exactly what it is like if a construction company begins to start digging and carrying out an excavation without first locating, identifying, and marking any underground utilities that are in the area. The scary thing is that this is exactly what happens in a number of cases.

Underground Utilities Can Be Found Absolutely Anywhere

Nobody knows for sure, but it is estimated that there are some 4 million excavations that take place each year in the UK. These can be anything from a small hole dug to repair a pipe or cable to something such as the foundations for a major building the size of Buckingham Palace. Well, perhaps not quite as big as that, but there are nonetheless some pretty large buildings created each year.

Operatives Who Need To Locate Underground Services Need HSG47 Training

HSG47 is a document provided by the Health & Safety Executive with regard to the potential dangers of working near underground services, and provides advice on how to reduce the risks. It is aimed primarily at reducing risks to health and safety as opposed to the risk of damaging services, although by reducing the risk to health and safety one is automatically helping to reduce the risk of damage to services.

Training In The Use Of Tools For Location Of Underground Services Is Essential

Unless you happen to be a roofing contractor, almost every construction project will begin with digging down in the surface of the earth in order to create the foundations of a building and install services underground. In fact, with the possible exception of telegraph poles and TV signals, virtually every other service that we will require is underground. Out of sight and in most cases out of mind.

Our Underground Surveyor Courses Teach Everything You Need To Know

At Sygma Solutions we are a leading provider of training courses for operatives who need to engage in the location of underground services. When working on any project that involves digging into the earth, there is the ever-present danger of there being services that run in the exact area that you need to dig. Locating and identifying these services is a prerequisite to any form of excavation, whether that is using hand tools, a mini-digger, or a JCB.

Our underground surveyor course will teach operatives everything from scratch and assumes that they know nothing about locating underground services.

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.

Our VScan Training Will Give Operatives The Confidence That they Need

When you are involved in any sort of contract that requires excavation work, even if it is only digging down a couple of feet, there is the ever-present danger of coming into contact with underground services. Virtually all of our utilities, with the exception of some telephone services, run underground, and the fact is that they can be just about anywhere.

The problem is that there can be a lot of uncertainty about where they run. Some of them have been in place for many years, and although plans are available, they can be very misleading.

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!