It is a fact that, in the UK, there is a huge number of everyday services that we all require, such as water, telecoms, sewage pipes, electricity, and so on, that are buried underground. Over the years, just about everything has become buried – even telecoms. Those readers who are older may remember the days when our telephone lines were connected to telegraph poles, but if you think about it, you don’t see many of those around today: they have all been buried underground.

What this means is that if you start to dig into the ground there is always a danger of hitting something that you didn’t know was there. Even in your own garden you have water, telecoms, sewage pipes, and electricity cables running to and from the street outside, and you may also have gas pipes, fibre optics, and so on. So, if you are going to install a new fence along the front of your garden, you need to be careful where you place the fence posts.

This applies much more to utility providers and contractors who are often digging in the highways and under pavements where there are bound to be all sorts of services running. Indeed, figures tell us that there are 1.5 million kilometres of underground services in the UK, so they can be just about anywhere. In fact, it is estimated that there are about 4 million excavation works of one sort or another in the UK every year, and it is known that they result in around 60,000 accidental cable strikes, many of which result in serious injury to workers, and are sometimes fatal.

If you are going to undertake any sort of contract which requires excavation work, it is essential to obtain as much information about possible underground services in the area as you can from local utility suppliers and authorities. However, there is one big danger here and that is that you cannot rely on records as gospel. They may be inaccurate. They may not exist at all. They may have had alterations which have not been recorded. Different utilities keep records in different ways as there is no overall requirement to stick to a particular pattern. So, you can only use utility records as a guide. Relying on them totally could be fatal.

A Thorough Survey Is Essential

The answer is that, before a spade ever strikes the ground, you need to undertake a thorough survey of the area where you are going to dig, and this requires the use of the CAT and Genny. Electromagnetic detection equipment such as the RD8100 is mainly used for detecting electric cables and metallic pipes, while something such as the Mala Easy Locator uses ground penetrating radar to detect polyethylene water and gas pipes and other buried features such as fuel tanks and other voids in the ground that may be of interest.

However, both types of equipment have their limitations, and it is essential to be aware of what they are because you could otherwise believe that there is nothing where you are going to dig when in fact there is. Just taking a simple example, a utility may be buried at a depth below which the equipment can read which could give you a false reading because it shows nothing there.

This is why you need a training course that can help to provide you with a cable avoidance qualification if you are going to be undertaking searches on a regular basis. You need to be aware of those limitations and to proceed accordingly. In this particular example, if nothing is shown, then you begin to dig down cautiously for about one foot and then take a further reading with the equipment which may show that there is a cable there this time.

At Sygma Solutions, we provide training in the use of the CAT and Genny under every type of possible circumstance, both in class and out on site for practical experience. We are also running classes online which are live and where you can interact with the trainer. Our five-day course is approved by the CITB and The Survey Association and leads to a Utility Surveyor cable avoidance qualification at level 3 which enables you to have a CSCS card.