What is Utility Locators and why is it important to identify underground utilities pipes and cables before digging?

It’s always better for every work to have all the information about it before starting it. Right? As we all know, Prevention is better than cure. It will minimize the causes of failure and harm. The same thing also can be applied in the work of excavation. We don’t know what’s under the ground. There can be pipes, cables or other utilities where you want to dig, and it can cause the damage.

Australia is estimated to have over 5 million ks of underground service utilities! There are some legal rules for digging. And one rule says that you can’t excavate without getting permission from authorized government agencies Although, Milanese of American digs the ground without permission. It may cause extreme damage. The chances of losing will increase when it attempts in residential areas. One cable or pipe’s damage can interrupt basic Life-necessity of civilians.

So it’s better to have information about what’s right below ground before digging. It will prevent the damage of utility things, which is inside the ground. It does not only stops the destruction, but it will also save the time when you need to search some specific pipe or cable which is underground. It will be easier if you have knowledge of where and how deep is that particular thing.

So the question is, how do we know what’s inside the land and where is it? There are lots of utility location companies available which can locate utilities placed under the ground. With the use of utility locators, they can do this.

What are the Utility Locators?

Utility locators are the tools which are used for underground service locating. It has that ability to detect all kind of things which is underground and no matter from which material it is made. It can prevent unwanted damages with the perfect detection of things.

There are lots of different tools and methods available for the utility detection.

Electromagnetic Utility Location

This method preferred for the detection of Mattel utilities. In this utility locator method. There are two main parts on which it is based and works, and that’s transistor and receiver. It works on a simple mechanism. The transmitter will send the electromagnetic Frequency under the ground, and this frequency will strike with the thing which is underground. After that, the receiver receives the information about that mettle thing and creates the perfect picture of that thing.

This method has one drawback. It can only detect utilities, which are made from metals, and it’s not able to detect plastic utilities.

Ground Penetrating Radar

It’s used to detect all the utilities which are metallic or non-metallic. It will expose the underground utility and gives the 3D image as a result. It’s used to locket pipes, cables, and other things which are not detected by the electromagnetic utility locator.

This method uses radar pulses to image the subsurface and uses electromagnetic radiation and detects the reflected signals from subsurface structures.

It’s the best method for detecting all the utilities. Although, it has one drawback and that’s it fails to find some utilities which are made with clay, saline or shale.

Hydro Vacuum Excavation

It’s a non-destructive method. Basically, this method is helpful when the digging can be harmful. The main aim of this method is to provide safety to workers. In this method for digging high-pressure water or air is used to uncover the excess material around the utilities.

It’s a safer method for digging. This process provides safety to the workers on site. And it eliminates the chances of accidents.

Let us know in the comment section below about your expirence in this field.