Cities and towns are growing at a rapid pace, relying on complex and intricate utility networks to keep our vital services running smoothly. However, some areas will find it harder than others to accommodate new infrastructure beneath the ground.

For example, older cities with already dense underground utility networks will have less space for new electrical, gas, water or telecommunications cables. Additionally, as the nation calls for new homes to be built to meet the housing shortage, excavations and construction sites are constantly coming into contact with utilities.

All this means there is a huge risk for anyone operating below the ground. With growing awareness of the issue, there’s no doubt that one of the biggest health and safety dangers that utility sector workers encounter when working below ground is accidental contact with cables.

Why Is It Such An Important Issue?

It’s not realistic to avoid the various operations, repairs and modernisation programs for the UK’s vital services. Many of these are important for improving the lives of communities and sustaining our way of life. Therefore, it’s a simple fact that more projects will be undertaken in the coming years to modify buried utilities.

Performing any excavation will inevitably bring site workers near underground utilities and pose a threat to their lives. Additionally, accidents can also cause huge and costly disruptions to vital services, as well as delay the progress of various projects. The only real way to curb the danger is to focus on ways to reduce utility strikes through proper operational practices and cable avoidance methods.

Safe Working Practices

Utility strikes occur when teams do not follow safe working practices and fail to review utility plans correctly. Also, many accidents happen when equipment is not used properly, or in the most extreme cases, when it is not actually used at all prior to excavation.

Numerous utility strikes occur in the UK every year, exposing workers to deadly risks, including electrocution and explosions. The issue is disruptive and dangerous as well as costly.

Huge sums of money have been spent to rectify the damage caused by misjudged digging, and as well disrupting the progress of a specific project, this can damage important services for local communities.

Planning and Preparation

The start of every excavation should involve a comprehensive review of the underground terrain through existing utility records and surveys. From here, a strategy should be developed within the context of appropriate industry standards to discover any and all cables that reside below the ground. A combination of existing record checks and on-site verification should be scheduled before any work actually takes place.

Proactive Cable Avoidance

Before excavation and after a full geophysical survey has been commissioned to detect, identify and verify the location of all utilities, additional cable avoidance methods should be applied. By using industry tools and equipment for locating unknown cables, a more full picture of the underground infrastructure can be developed.

To avoid a cable strike, there are a number of tools that can be used to detect underground utilities, such as signal transmitters and receivers to detect and trace the presence of utilities through the electromagnetic fields they create.

Passive detection can allow you to detect all utilise that already gives off a live signal, while active detection can be used to induce a signal that can later be traced by the right receiving equipment. By undertaking this, most buried utilities can be located, reducing utility strikes considerably.

Make Sure Your Crew is Fully Trained

At Sygma Solutions, we strongly advocate for proper training for everyone in the utility sector. This is for the safety of individuals as well as the good of the sector as a whole. Ultimately, a lack of training produces additional high-level risks to excavation teams.

Often, dangerous utility strikes are caused by operators who have not received adequate training. And while we also stress the importance of having the right equipment, tools are useless unless your team can use them effectively.

At Sygma Solutions, we offer a range of training programs to teach operators the correct methods to locate underground utilities, protect their lives and avoid costly disruptions.