Buried Services

• Contact with live underground electricity cables by machines, power tools or hand tools, can be extremely dangerous.
• Every year workers digging on building sites and at roadworks have narrow escapes when they accidentally hit live cables.
• Ensure a Permit to break ground has been completed for the task.
• Digging carefully is not enough. An employer must use service drawings, As built drawings and/or other reliable information to establish that cables may be present. Attach this information to the Permit to break ground and clearly brief the site operatives completing the task to the services in the vicinity of the works.
• More accurate information should then be obtained by the use of a cable locating device, CAT & Genny. Ensure you only use the CAT and Genny if you are trained to do so. Ensure all modes are used and any signals are clearly spray painted onto the ground. Ensure the Genny is used to be able to obtain a depth reading for any metallic service.
• Once a run of cable has been located and marked on the surface, its precise location must be established by hand dug trail hole. Insulated hand tools must be used when excavating around live services.
• Digging by machine must not be attempted until the cable has been exposed by digging trial holes. Mechanical excavation must not occur within 500mm of any service.
• Penetrating road pins are banned from use on site.
• Keep a careful watch for evidence of cables during digging work and repeat checks with the cable locator.
• Where practicable do not use power tools within 0.5 m. of the indicated line of the cable.
• Should you come across concrete in which a cable may be embedded, consult your supervisor, as special precautions may be necessary.
• If in any doubt about whether an exposed service is a `live' or `dead', treat it as a `live' cable
• Damage to gas pipes can lead to uncontrolled and dangerous gas escapes - fires or explosions often follow.
• Metal pipes or cables may be detected using a CAT & Genny device, but they will not find plastic pipes.
• Cast iron water pipes look very much like cast iron gas pipes - treat them all as gas pipes.
• Backfill must be adequately compacted beneath the pipe to prevent any settlement that could subsequently damage the pipe.
• Do not leave concrete or hard material under or adjacent to the pipe as this may cause it to fracture.
• If a service is damaged, keep everyone away and report the matter at once.​​​​​​​

Backfilling main services

• When backfilling service mains ensure the correct depth of sand is placed over the service along with any warning tape.
• A layer of Netlon barrier should be laid 300mm above the service mains (gas, water and electric), sand and warning tape. This provides an additional warning that buried services are now within 300mm and works should proceed with caution. 

• Gas purge valves should be protected with a vertical gas duct to provide a clear visual warning marker.

• At plot connection locations place a 1-Ton sand bag onto the sanded services in the location future plot connections will be completed. This will allow easy excavation of the plot connections in the future by simply lifting and removing the 1-ton sand bag using with an excavator, removing the need for any mechanical excavation. The mains services can then be exposed by hand.
   

Overhead services

• Download and follow guidance set out in GS6 ‘Avoiding danger from overhead power lines’.
• Use the 'Working around underground and overhead services' risk assessment.
• Treat all overhead power cables as ‘live’. Setup goalposts to allow safe travel underneath the cables. 
• Contact with overhead power cables by the jib of a crane, the hoist rope or the load usually causes fatal injuries to anyone who may be touching the crane, the hoist rope or the load.
• The same applies should a scaffold tube or ladder come into contact with the cables.
• Similarly, the elevated bodies of tipper trucks may also make contact with the cables, particularly if the ground has built up beneath them.
• In the case of high voltage cables, actual contact is not necessary as the current may jump several feet.
• By law, the safe distances from the cables must be marked by barriers and/or ‘goal posts’. Always work within the limitations imposed - they are provided for your protection.
• Should you be working with or near a crane or item of plant which comes into contact with overhead power cables, do not touch the machine or anything connected to it.
• If a casualty is still in contact with the power source, do not attempt to touch him until you have been officially assured that the power is off.
• Should you see the driver of a machine which is still in contact with a power source attempting to climb down due to fire, shout to him to jump clear - he must not make contact with the ground and the machine at the same time. If there is no other danger it is safer for the driver to stay put as electricity can arch when he jumps clear until the power is turned off.
• Any person who appears to be unconscious as a result of an electric shock should be given artificial respiration - preferably by a First aider.
• Severe burns should be treated with copious amounts of clean cold water.
• In any event do not hesitate to call the emergency services.
• Report any defect in the system of work without delay.

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