The modern city is a maze of streets and alleys, buildings and barriers. As complicated as cities are at first glance, however, the situation below ground could be a lot more confusing: power, telephone and fibre optic cables compete for space with water and gas mains, wastewater drains and sewer pipes. Complicating the issue further, new utilities are constantly being installed and existing services relocated, with layers of utilities both in and out useful dating back as far as the 19th century.
For excavating contractors, encountering buried utilities during excavation can result, at best, in costly delays and financial or other penalties where services are disrupted; at worst, this scenario carries the chance of the injury to workers and even death.
Before contractors commence excavation on a niche site, it is therefore vital that they make every effort to detect and locate all buried utilities likely to be suffering from planned excavation or construction activities. In the beginning, this is likely to involve contacting a "before you dig" service. Visit website collate information from utility companies regarding the location of buried utilities and pass these data on - usually for a fee - to excavating contractors.
While utility tracking services provide an essential first filter for contractors, they are not infallible: maps could be incomplete or inaccurate; utilities might have been added, removed or relocated without that information being offered. For this reason, it is best for excavating contractors to activate the services of suitably qualified, experienced and equipped utility surveyors and a computer program mapping service.
Using modern methods and technology such as for example electromagnetic detectors, radiodetection and ground penetrating radar systems (GPRS), it is possible to locate accurately a wide range of buried utilities including both metallic and non-metallic pipes and cables. These utilities may then be mapped utilizing a combination of traditional survey techniques, GPS and geographical information systems (GIS) software.