Between 2012 and 2017 the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) received 6,746 reports of incidents concerning damage to pipelines and the escape of flammable substances liable to cause harm. Remember that this is only concerning strikes of pipelines with flammable substances. It is just one figure out of many other strikes of underground services because there are water pipes, electricity cables, telecoms, fibreoptics, sewage pipes, and more.

It is thought that there are between 2.5 million and 4 million excavations every year and about 60,000 strikes of underground services overall. Furthermore, the figures above refer only to incidents which have been reported. It is believed that there may be many more strikes which go unreported because some contractors may be covering them up in order to avoid the onerous investigations and costs involved and to avoid being blamed for poor practice. In addition, there is no legal requirement to report a strike.

There is certainly poor practice. A very recent study found that 31% of contractors surveyed admitted that they did not always carry out a search for electricity cables. Reasons given included that they didn’t consider it was their job to carry out a survey of the excavation site, and that they didn’t think that they would dig deep enough to hit anything!

Obviously, all this is part of the reason that there are so many strikes of underground services, but even though responsible contractors take as many precautions as they can before undertaking any excavation work, there are still quite a number of issues which can arise. Just to begin with, the services are underground so they cannot be seen. But they can be heard, very often, using the appropriate tools. However, even those are not 100% reliable because the person using them may not have had sufficient training to understand that they do indeed have limitations, and what those limitations may be. The result is that they can use the tools – the CAT and Genny, get a negative response, and as a result believe that there is nothing in the excavation site, even though there may be.

This is why proper training in the use of the CAT and Genny in all their modes, such as the courses that we provide at Sygma Solutions, are essential if one is to understand exactly how and when to use them, and, most importantly, the limitations that they have. We run a series of courses, one of which is our EUSR cable avoidance training, and which is to the standards required by HSG47 which is produced by the HSE. Upon successful completion of this course, an operative can gain a EUSR card, which is needed in order to be able to work on certain sites, such as those of HS2, since the course is approved by the EUSR itself. Our training is also approved by the CITB, the CSCS, and The Survey Association.

You cannot get better training than we provide. Between us we have over 100 years’ experience of using all the tools for the location of underground services, and we not only understand them, but in the case of the Mala Easy Locator we also hire them out, and we service and calibrate them as well. All the equipment needs to be properly calibrated in order to function as it should, and in order that you can rely on the readings that you get.

The Mala Easy Locator is an all-in-one unit that has a hinged shaft so it can be folded up compactly and easily fit into the back of a station wagon for transport from one site to another. It has an aluminium body that protects it from the weather and also enables it to deal with harsh terrain. The Easy Locator has an interface that is controlled by a single dial that you just turn and push. The monitor is also very easy to read, even in bright sunlight.

In addition, the Easy Locator has 4 battery packs and can operate for up to 14 hours continuously. It is also quite light, weighing only 47lb, which again makes it easy to transport.

For further information about hiring and using the Mala Easy Locator and for any of our expert training courses, call us on 0844 241 2597 or email enquiries@sygma-solutions.com.