9/05/2012

The Utility Locator Service In Your Area Can Save You Trouble

By Mitzi Fitzgerald


Creating a hole of any kind in your back or front yard happens to entail a lot of different tasks. The planning you do and the measurements have to be set up. The right shovel for the job or you may need to get some heavy equipment in there. Just one more thing to concern yourself with. That call to a utility locator service to find out if you are going to be digging into any of the many services run under your yard.

In all urban, most suburban and a few rural areas, in the United States, there are pipes, conduits and various supply lines with all sorts of stuff in them laid under the ground. The water mains that supply homes and manufacturing plants are there. Supply lines for natural gas and electrical supplies are laid in what to many seem to be a fairly random way. They are not all run under the street or roads in your neighborhood.

Digging that hole or making an additional shelter space for you or your livestock, family or recreation and cutting into a valuable service can cause a breakdown in the service to your neighbors. It will signal the assistance of your local service provider. The number of things that might happen when you break into one of these pipes have many different scenarios play out and none of them are good for you.

The resulting mess can be something you are ill prepared to take care of because of the costs involved. This is not to mention that any damage done by you will probably have to be paid for by you. That includes repairs and clean up. Many of these systems are old and very fragile, so the possibility that you could rupture it if you get close will make you want to find out where they are before you dig.

Contacting the utility company, before you start to dig, is a precautionary task that can save everyone a lot of trouble and cost. These utility locator service professionals will be paid by the service company as a cost of doing business because they know it is easier to prevent damage than repair it after it happens. They want you to call them about this.

The technology they will use is kept up to date all of the time. They are currently using what is called SUE. This is Subsurface Utility Engineering and it entails using various different elements of technology to locate pipes and other services in a non invasive way. It uses GPR or ground penetrating radar and subsurface geophysical equipment as well as simple GPS to locate these surfaces and map them for you in your area.

Do not be concerned that you may have thought only big builders can have access to these services. The utility companies want you to ask them before you dig, no matter where that is or how deep you plan to dig. The secrets of the location of pipes, if they stay secret, will cause too many problems for everyone.

A good utility locator service can make sure you are digging safely. They can locate the pipes, conduits and wire bundles that can be damaged if you do not know about them. They will be on hand whenever you have a project and, as stated above, will save you money and problems.




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