Before carrying out any groundworks such as excavation, it is vitally important to know what is below you before you start. In the UK there are around 1.5 million kilometres of underground utility infrastructure and almost half of all digging works are carried out without access to accurate information about the utility apparatus in the vicinity. This places your workers, the reputation of your business and the integrity of our utility networks at risk. *
As a company or individual carrying out any work or activity involving excavation, it is your responsibility to identify and control the risks to any individuals affected. This can include your own workers, those of other third-party contractors, and members of the public. Damaging or even coming into contact with utility infrastructure can cause serious injury and potentially be fatal to those involved. There may also be potentially severe environmental impacts!
The first step in determining what utility infrastructure is present is to obtain plans and other supporting information held by the utility owners in the vicinity of your project. This information is then usually combined into a report of the search, sometimes called ‘Stat Pack’, ‘Utility Pack’ or ‘PAS 128 Report’ among others. This report will identify the utility owners and combine their respective plans and information into a single document allowing you to consider their infrastructure in your own planning and work activities.
The main obstacle involved in gaining accurate information about the utility infrastructure below you is the difficulty in first identifying and then corresponding with the various utility owners. The time and effort spent in tracking down which companies own infrastructure in the area, obtaining current contact details and then chasing up plans at regular intervals can be considerable and inconvenient, especially when trying to plan a project or when a start date is looming. Due to the numerous different methods of providing plans and data, even accessing the data they provide is not always simple and some utility owners may take up to 28 days to respond.
We can help by taking responsibility for this process. By providing us with the location and nature of your works, we will identify and contact each utility owner within the vicinity of your project. Due to the extensive network of contacts we have developed, requests for information can be made quickly, efficiently, and chased up in a professional manner when necessary. When there may be dozens of utility owners with infrastructure in the vicinity of your project, it will save time, money and stress by allowing us to obtain this essential information on your behalf.
By providing a fixed price per project, instead of charging per utility owner contacted or the amount of time spent on chasing up enquiries, we can also remove the financial risk and uncertainty from the process of obtaining the information you need. We deliver our reports in a high quality PDF format, removing the need for specialist viewing software and ideal for printing, viewing on your PC or a tablet device on site.
Typically we can deliver your completed report within 20 working days. However, if you require plans more urgently, please consider our FastTrack Utility Search service.
Our searches and reports are carried out in accordance with the requirements of PAS 128:2014 Specification for Underground Utility Detection, Verification and Location, published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) and sponsored by the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE). Our reports achieve a quality level of QL-D.
While every effort is made to ensure the information provided in our reports is complete and correct, we do rely on the information held by the owners of utility infrastructure. Utility plans, regardless of their source, should be considered a guide and must be used in addition to, not instead of, further surveying with suitable detection equipment before starting any excavation work.
Even once you have received your completed search report, safe digging practice must still be observed. Please consider the guidance provided by HSG47 Avoiding Danger from Underground Services, published by the Health and Safety Executive.