Blog | Util Locate

4 Problems Professional Potholing Services Prevent

A huge portion of underground utility damages in the US are caused by failure to create potholes. It’s difficult to begin an excavation project without knowing where utility lines are. Potholing is a type of underground utility location that involves digging a small area or soft excavation to check where utilities are located.

Potholing relies on a vacuum excavator, which uses high-pressure air or water to break down soil, then vacuum the soil into a tank. To conduct thorough utility locating, a technician creates several test holes via potholing. As a result, you can determine:

Where utilities are located
How long the utility lines are
How deeply they are buried

This information is invaluable in any excavation procedure to prevent a slew of problems ranging from property damage and injury to financial and legal headaches.

Accidental Damage To Utilities

In most cases, excavating without creating potholes can lead to disasters. One of the biggest problems of excavation projects is accidental damage to utilities because builders can’t identify their location and depth.

With so many utility companies around, utility lines can overlap and run through any area underground. Not to mention, underground utilities change position over time due to changes in temperature and soil density.

Failure to conduct potholing before an excavation is similar to going into a battle blind. You can hit a utility line at any moment. Depending on the type of utility you destroy and the severity of the damage, you are not only causing damage to public property, but you may also cause power outages, floods, water interruption, and fires.

With potholing, you can identify the actual location of underground utilities. Knowing their location and depth tells you what area is safe to excavate, preventing any accidents during your project.

Working Hazard For Excavators

Another problem that comes with excavation projects is the risk of injury. Excavations are prone to accidents since they expose excavators and other workers to hazardous conditions, which may lead to injuries.

After accidentally hitting a pipe or an electric line, an excavator may get injured from the burst pipe and get electrocuted or burned from a damaged electric line. Potholing helps solve this problem as it tells you which areas to avoid in order to keep everyone safe for the duration of the project.

Additional Costs

Getting injured while accidentally damaging utility lines will result in piling medical bills and expensive repairs, which incur additional costs. Though potholing prior to an excavation project may seem like an additional step, think of potholing as a cost-efficient approach that helps prevent accidental damage and minimize work hazards. Therefore, potholing will prevent unnecessary repair and hospital bills in the future.

Legal Trouble

Not only will you incur additional costs when you damage utility lines and injure people, but you’re also bound to get in trouble with the law.

According to state laws, everyone is prohibited from using mechanized equipment within 18 to 30 inches of marked utilities. Without potholing, you’ll be excavating blindly and run the risk of breaching the allotted tolerance zone. On the other hand, potholing using vacuum excavation helps you comply with this law.

Potholing Services

Before starting any excavation project, it’s recommended to mark all utilities in the area to avoid the problems mentioned above. Consult skilled professionals from Util-Locate, a South California-based digging company that offers utility locating services. Reach out to Util-Locate today for potholing services!

How Does Utility Location Work?

When conducting excavation projects or renovations, the first thing to do is locate utility lines. This is crucial in avoiding unwanted accidents such as burst pipes, power outages, gas leaks, and injuries. Not only will these accidents delay your project, but they are also costly.

Utility location determines the location of public utility lines like electricity, water, sewage, and telephone lines. With today’s technology, there are several ways of conducting utility locations to track the vast underground network of utility lines. Depending on the situation, one may be a better method than others.

Electromagnetic Locating

Electromagnetic locating is a non-invasive method of underground utility location that relies on an electromagnetic locator, also known as a pipe and cable locator. This helps locate, trace, and map out utility lines through electromagnetic frequency.

An electromagnetic locator consists of a transmitter, which sends out signals, and a receiver, which receives the frequencies reflected by objects that are metal or conductive materials. Thus, electromagnetic locating is best to find metals such as pipes and electrical ducts, making it one of the most accessible utility locating methods today.

Ground Penetrating Radar

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) locates utility lines using high-frequency radio signals. The GPR sends out radio signals onto the ground, and anything underground reflects the radio frequencies to the radar’s receiver, where they are stored in digital media.

Similar to electromagnetic locating, ground penetrating radar is a non-invasive utility locating method used to detect underground utilities. However, it has stronger underground detection capabilities than electromagnetic locating.

It can determine the size and depth of underground objects, making it the preferred choice of utility location when pipes are beyond 10 to 15 feet deep. Most commonly, this technology is used to locate buried pipes, tanks, utility holes, and cables that typically cannot be located using ordinary methods.

Vacuum Excavation

Salt, shale, or clay in soil interferes with non-invasive underground utility location methods like electromagnetic locating and GPR. In such cases, it’s better to do vacuum excavation.

Also known as hydro excavation, soft digging, or potholing, vacuum excavation is a type of mildly-invasive utility location procedure that uses high-pressure water or air to break soil apart and vacuum it into a tank in order to clear a path toward utility lines.

Utility Locating Services

Whether you’re doing a small project or major home renovation, it’s always best to err on the side of caution. Rather than trying your luck and accidentally damaging utility lines, hire professional utility locating services.

Utility location requires the use of special equipment that only professionals can properly operate. Not to mention, good utility locating services come with technical advice on how to distance yourself from pinpointed utility locations when excavating.

Avoid unexpected and costly accidents by reaching out to Util-locate, the best underground digging company offering private utility locating services in Southern California!

What are the Safety Measures for Excavation?

Due to the existence of a particularly significant number of dangers, excavation is one of the most dangerous construction processes. To reduce the risk of excavation to construction workers, private utility locating services must follow a number of safety procedures.

It’s absolutely critical to take every precaution possible to ensure everyone’s safety and the project’s success.

Comprehensive utility locating, utility infrastructure investigations, damage prevention, and mitigation actions for issues detected during preliminary surveillance are all part of effective planning.

What is Excavation Work?

Excavation labor entails the removal of earth or rock from a location using tools, machines, or explosives to create an open face, hole, or cavity.

On any construction site, it is the initial action. It begins with the excavation of the structure’s foundation pit, which can be shallow or deep. It’s finished by filling the same pit with excavated earth or soil brought in from the outside.

The size and depth of the foundation, the types of soil strata, the water table, and the adjacent structures, among other factors, all influence construction excavation.

A person who engages in demolition, excavation, tunneling, or construction that causes damage to a pipeline facility that may threaten life or inflict significant bodily harm or property damage, according to the Federal Pipeline Inspection, Protection, and Safety Act.

Excavation work can take place in a variety of locations, including:

Business premises
Construction sites
Public areas.

Excavation work includes the following tasks:

Open excavations
Potholing
Pit excavations
Retaining walls and trenches
Shafts and drives

The Hazards of Excavation and Managing Risks

It’s not difficult to understand why. Trenching and excavation operations offer particularly high risks to workers.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 130 people died in trenching and excavation operations between 2011 and 2016. The private construction business was responsible for 80% of the fatalities, with 49% occurring between 2015 and 2016.

Striking services that are overhead or underground can kill or gravely hurt workers and those nearby. It is crucial to avoid undermining services as much as possible. All overhead and underground services should be identified and anticipated by good planning and supervision, which will assist in determining what activities will be permitted near the excavation activity.

To help you manage the risks, it is crucial to work with trusted private utility locating services. The planning phase of an excavation operation, which includes hazard detection and soil research, is where safe work practices begin.

An experienced private utility locating services should look for indicators of subsurface utilities such as fire hydrants, telephones, and transformers before proceeding.

Create a Utility Map

While you should always call 811 before digging, it’s also a good idea to create a utility map before beginning any utility service project. After all, 811 may be unaware of some private utility cables or unknown subterranean utility lines, or its information may be outdated.

You can use old utility maps as a reference while creating a utility map, but you should never use them to guide your excavation. Utility maps must be updated on a regular basis, and preparing one before the start of a new project is the best approach to avoid mishaps.

Falling Objects

Due to the usage of heavy machinery, falling items are a significant cause of excavation injuries.

Excavated material, referred to as a spoil pile, should be kept at least two feet away from the excavation’s edge.

Although it may be essential to move spoils to another area, this procedure often necessitates the installation of holding measures. While loading and unloading products, workers must also keep a safe distance from automobiles and other equipment.

Water accumulation prevention is an important safety measure in construction in general, but it’s especially vital around excavations.

Gases

Trenches can have hazardous atmospheres due to a lack of oxygen or a high concentration of another gas. Some trenches may have an environment that necessitates the use of additional protective gear such as masks or respirators.

Before the private utility locating staff begins an excavation, the atmosphere must be examined under the supervision of a qualified person, and at regular intervals thereafter.

The qualified person in charge of an excavation project must also take adequate measures to mitigate the risk posed by the excavation’s atmosphere, which may include removing personnel from the site until conditions improve.

Cave-Ins

Collapsed tunnels or cave-ins are one of the most prevalent accidents that private utility locators face when undertaking excavation work or dealing with subterranean lines.

Private utility locating contractors must examine the soil composition and design and install structures that will serve as support and shielding to avoid this. They can assess the likelihood of a cave-in by testing the soil ahead of time, while support beams can prevent tunnel collapse and shields can protect employees in the event of a cave-in.

Assessment

Excavations should only be left open for as long as is necessary to complete the job. After the site has been completed, it should be reviewed, primarily for the purpose of improving safety procedures.

The assessment’s findings might then be incorporated into future operations planning, resulting in a trend of continuous improvement.

Proper Equipment

Excavation projects are no laughing matter. Most projects cannot be completed without the essential tools, even with the most experienced utility personnel.

Investing in pricey equipment for a one-time activity can be unwise if you’re a homeowner digging for a one-time project.

Rather, it is safer and more cost-effective to hire an expert utility finder who already has such equipment and is familiar with using it to provide services. These excavators have been trained to use equipment like ground-penetrating radar to verify that all survey markers are accurately documented.

Hire Potholing Utilities You Can Trust

Whether you’re excavating to install new underground utilities or landscaping, you should always follow the safety precautions outlined above to protect yourself and those around you.

If you’re a property owner and have no experience with private utility locating or digging in a utility site, you may not know what to do if you accidentally hit a gas line or a water pipe. As a result, it’s best to delegate the task to utility providers or hire professionals who specialize in potholing utilities.

Our team consists of professionals with years of experience in potholing utilities services, and we treat all of our requests with the highest care. Contact us at Util-Locate today!

When to Call in a Private Utility Locator

Any time you plan to dig on your own residential or commercial property, the first step should be to discover utility lines. The help of a private utility locating service should be used for both small and large dig operations, whether you’re excavating on private or public land.

These services are extremely useful for detecting and avoiding public underground utilities. It is more common than you might imagine coming upon underground utilities while excavating or doing other excavation work.

So, we’ll go over all you need to know about utility locating, when it should be done, and why it’s such an important initial step for every business owner in the section below.

Private Utility Locating: What You Need to Know?

Is it time to call your private utility locator? We understand that you don’t always want to call if you don’t have to. However, if you’re digging on a commercial site, you’ll almost certainly come across hidden private utilities.

Any utility that extends beyond the meter is typically referred to as a private utility. Warehouses, office parks, universities, hospitals, retail projects, and industrial sites are examples of situations where a private location is required.

Commercial sites, such as apartment complexes or other areas with restricted access, may also be included.

A trained utility locator will visit your site when a site visit has been booked to determine if a full locate is achievable based on site conditions. If the conditions are suitable, a ground-penetrating radar will be utilized to scan the ground surface and detect the location of an object.

This information is then marked or mapped to produce a clear picture of regions to avoid when excavating or doing other invasive groundwork.

Calling Private Utility Locating Services: Call Before You Dig

“Call before you dig” is a phrase you’ve probably heard. This campaign has been launched around the country to educate people about the significance of detecting subsurface utilities before excavating.

Whether you’re building a pool, putting up a fence, or landscaping, make sure the area is clear of utility lines.

From any state, you or the company you’ve engaged to execute the work should dial 811.

Before excavating on any business or residential property, including your own. Technicians will be dispatched to the site to use electromagnetic equipment to locate potholing utilities.

Then any that run from the street to the service meter are marked. This will assist households and professionals in avoiding damage to water, sewage, power, and natural gas lines.

Do You Need Private Utility Locating Services?

You’ll almost certainly need to do a second call before beginning your excavation endeavor. Private utility locating services may be required to locate and demarcate underground electrical wires, gas pipes, and other utilities on private, residential, commercial, and municipal property.

The wires that run beyond the service meter are known as private utilities. Electrical lines running from the meter to a house or building, for example, would be considered private.

Even on your own land, it’s critical to have these boundaries clearly and properly designated before beginning to dig for safety and liability concerns. You’ll need to hire a private underground utility locator to have these identified.

Utility maps are frequently missing, obsolete, erroneous, or incomplete, therefore private locator personnel do not rely on them.

Instead, they use a variety of specialized technologies to conduct a thorough analysis of the area. Electromagnetic equipment, ground penetrating radar (GPR), and electronic or radio frequency (RF) pipe and cable locating instruments are just a few examples.

Finally, a private locator may create comprehensive, high-quality utility maps of active and abandoned lines.

What Happens When Potholing Utilities are Hit?

Excavation work that is carried out without calling a private utility locating service is a hazardous operation.

When buried utilities are impacted, workers can easily be wounded or killed, making the location of subterranean utilities a safety issue first and foremost. Damage to the utility and the equipment in use is a possibility.

Repairs of underground utilities can be costly and time-consuming due to their nature. These frequently necessitate the excavation of the full length of pipe, cable, or conduit, which comes with significant fines and downtime.

Damage to nearby networks can result in difficulties like internet outages or flooding in the vicinity. When a buried utility is destroyed, the contractor is responsible for repairing it as soon as possible. Not to mention these actions can be costly and time-consuming.

Public Utilities Vs. Private Utilities

Public utility services install public utilities to give service to a specific area. Regardless of whether they are on public or private land, the public utility provider owns and maintains these lines. Gas, power, and electricity are examples of public utilities.

Private utilities are those that extend beyond service meters or public utilities and, in many cases, onto privately owned land. Electrical feeders and gas mains running across parking lots or to important institutions such as hospitals or fire stations are examples of private utilities.

Lines running to and from substations, major industrial complexes, and refineries are examples. Because these utilities would be owned and maintained by the property owner, they would be outside the jurisdiction of utility locating firms.

What are the Different Private Utility Lines?

Most homes have unmarked private utility wires, which pose a serious risk to anyone excavating.

It’s critical that all lines are identified and marked. These are just a few of the subterranean utilities that could be present on your property.

Electricity for exterior lighting
Septic pipes
Sprinkler systems
Invisible fencing
Gas lines for heated pools
Gas lines to fire pits or grills
Power for a detached garage
Storm drains
Satellite dish lines

Call a Reliable Private Utility Locator

Using a private utility finder to avoid hitting concealed utilities is an excellent technique to avoid hitting them. Electric, gas, oil, steam, communications, water, sewer, and storm lines may all be found by private utility locators like us.

We are experts at identifying buried materials, removing the guesswork from your excavation. Don’t take the risk of hitting buried utilities, contact us at Util-Locate today!

How Do Ground-Penetrating Radars Work?

Ground-penetrating radars (GPRs) use high-frequency electromagnetic radiation to locate underground utilities in places that are too dangerous for humans to enter, like sewers, collapsed mines, and building foundations.

These radars can locate underground utilities quickly and accurately, making them very useful in potholing utilities or private utility locating services, as well as in utility locating services conducted by utility companies themselves. Whether you’re working with natural gas or water pipes, the following guide will help you understand how GPRs work and how to use them most effectively for private utility locating.

What Is A GPR?

Essentially, a GPR sends radio pulses into one end of an object of interest and measures how long it takes for them to bounce back out. If there’s something in between (such as a buried object), then some of those signals won’t make it back to their starting point.

Like other tools used for potholing utilities, GPRs come in various sizes depending on application needs. They can be handheld versions designed for easy use by technicians on foot looking for infrastructure along roadsides; larger ones used by heavy machinery operators clearing construction sites; and even miniaturized drone versions controlled via smartphone apps.

The Best Uses for GPRs

Two of the most common uses for ground penetrating radars are detecting buried utility lines, such as gas or electric lines, and locating lost items in hard to reach areas.

Private utility locating services are especially good at finding cables that have been deliberately buried. GPRs can also be used for probing soil conditions before construction.

From private utility locating to potholing utilities, GPR is often used for such purposes and can locate pipes up to 20 feet underground. While a traditional surveyor may take weeks or months to complete their task, with GPR it’s only hours or days at most.

The Advantages of GPRs

First and foremost, using a GPR is an incredibly fast way to conduct utility locating services. The high frequency radio waves pass through all sorts of materials — from asphalt to concrete to earth — giving you a view beneath that surface.

Unlike traditional utility locating services or potholing utilities, you don’t have to dig a trench or disturb anything above ground level, which makes it perfect for areas where excavation would be disruptive.

The Disadvantages of GPRs

That said, you should also be aware of the common disadvantages associated with GPRs. If a utility has been damaged, removed or destroyed then you could miss it with a GPR system. This is why it’s vital to use qualified professional utility locators that have been trained and experienced in private locating techniques.

While GPRs can lower the costs of your overall project by reducing the need to dig up an entire site, the equipment itself is not cheap.

Get the Job Done With Our Expert Utility Locating Services

When working with GPRs, it is imperative that you remain aware of local ordinances regarding excavation work near existing utility lines. This is where we come in.

A private utility locating service can provide you with all of these tools to pinpoint a leak in your water line, an underground pipe, or other important utilities. For those who do not have an underground network and are trying to find out what is below their land, potholing utilities is another way to pinpoint what lies beneath you.

To learn more about how our team can help with private utility locating, contact us at Util-Locate today.

How Vacuum Excavators Help Uncover Hidden Utilities

Utility locating services, such as vacuum excavators, help unearth utilities that have been buried beneath the streets and sidewalks of our cities. The most common of these services are used for private utility locating, but they can also be employed to identify electric power lines and telecommunications cables too.

These services can come in handy when you’re planning to lay new pipes or build new streets, but do you know how they work? And how will they help you? Check out this guide on how vacuum excavators help uncover hidden utilities to find out more!

Why Do You Need to Uncover Utility Lines?

When you plan to dig a hole in a public street, you need to be sure that your work won’t damage underground utility lines. One of the best ways to locate buried utilities is with ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Unfortunately, not everyone has access to sophisticated equipment like GPR. That’s where vacuum excavators come in.

When we are talking about hidden utility lines, we are usually referring to a private utility line. These kinds of utilities include electric power lines, telecommunication cables or water systems that could be underground but are not intended for public use. A vacuum excavator is often used to find and expose these types of utilities before construction projects can begin.

When Do You Need to Use a Vacuum Excavator?

In general, you’ll want to use a vac head when you’re trying to locate utilities below street level. Underground utility lines are often hidden beneath public streets, so they can be extremely difficult to find. This is where vac heads can come in handy: by using a vacuum mechanism, these tools can locate buried cables and pipes with ease.

The machine forces groundwater out of an area in order to expose any lines underground, while a GPS device attached to it can make sure it stays in one spot while crews drill holes. By clearing away topsoil and keeping suction applied beneath a specific point, these machines uncover utilities at the street

In short, this equipment can help eliminate unnecessary digging by sucking out dirt, rocks and other debris instead of pushing it back up to the surface with a traditional mechanical scoop.

Not only does a vacuum excavator save time, but it also helps locate both shallow and deep lines without causing damage or inconvenience to the surrounding homes or businesses.

Is It Safe?

There are three major dangers to watch out for when conducting utility locating services: electric shock; damage to underground lines; and harmful gasses such as methane and hydrogen sulfide.

Once excavation starts, workers need to maintain vertical alignment in order to find all utilities with no ruptures whatsoever. A small ground crew should remain above-ground whenever possible; if employees aren’t within eye contact of each other, communication will fail and things can get dangerous pretty quickly.

Utility Locating Services You Can Trust

The purpose of potholing utilities with a vacuum excavator is to help identify what you’re going to run into below ground before it gets expensive. Certain things like pipes and cables need to be relocated, while other things may not be as important.

It’s easy for some contractors to underestimate how much time it will take them to excavate something when they can’t see where they are digging. Our expert team at Util-Locate will walk you through the process of vacuum excavation to help you understand the importance of this procedure.

If you have reason to believe that your project is going to have any type of underground obstruction that needs removing or relocation, then it might be worth getting a contractor or utility company out there before you start breaking ground so that everyone involved knows what they are dealing with.