The Importance of Full Site Utility Investigations
Understanding your underground utilities is often key for a successful project. Sometimes you may just be looking for a specific line, but that may not be everything within your scope. There are many reasons why investigating your full site for underground utilities can be useful in both the early design phases and even in the middle of work.
Providing Safety On Site
Locating utilities can help avoid design changes, save costs and prevent delays, but the most important reason to locate your utilities is safety. Utility locating is necessary for safety of crews, the project site, and the surrounding community. The more you understand what’s underneath the surface of your scope of work, the less likely you’ll run into any unexpected or dangerous conditions during construction.
Mid-Project Discoveries
Speaking of unexpected conditions, there are many calls that come in where a utility was uncovered during the work phase that wasn’t expected to be there. Finding a utility line like this often involves stop-work procedures that halt a project until the area is marked and mapped out. If one utility line is uncovered, there’s a possibility for more to be within the project area. Earlier investigations can help avoid any additional changes down the line.
Utilities Outside the Project Scope
Many sites may have one or two visible surface features within a scope, but there may also be other utilities crossing through the scope, or even abandoned utilities crossing through the project area. Utilities are not as static as they may seem. They’re connected from outside sources to provide power, communications, drinking water and waste removal. Our team provides full utility investigations with a variety of technologies and methodologies. When investigating a site, our team will scan around the perimeter of a scope (and sometimes beyond the scope) to ensure there are no existing utilities outside of the working area.
Multiple Confirmations for Higher Accuracy
A full site investigation should involve a number of investigation methods with various confirmations. A utility investigation is a multi-step process to ensure accuracy, including multiple passthroughs of an area to get a full picture. There are various tools, such as electromagnetic locators, ground penetrating radar, and split boxes that provide multiple ways of examining utilities within a site.
Additional Investigations Of Utilities
In addition to standard Quality Level B non-destructive capabilities, using vacuum excavation can be used to get an accurate depth of utilities with Quality Level A data. This can be used to confirm overlap of intersecting and parallel utility lines, provide an exact depth, and assess utility conditions to determine if utility replacement is needed.
Even with this information, you may still need to determine additional information regarding storm and wastewater sewer lines and their internal conditions if you uncover new information on site. Investigating sewer conditions often involves a combination of sewer cleaning and camera inspection with full video reporting. This can reveal cracks, collapses, cross bores, blockages, defects and surface features that may have been unknown.
If you need utility investigations for the full scope of your site, our team can provide full subsurface utility engineering, hydro jetting and NASSCO-certified pipe inspection. Check out our website for additional information on how we can support your next project.
