Accurate Locating is Everything

A clear picture of what lies beneath your job site is critical any time you’re forced to excavate.

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I’d like to hydroexcavate a whole city. I’d like to see the underground fully exposed, with all the infrastructure preserved and held in place by wires and stilts like dinosaur skeletons in a museum — a sort of living, life-size diorama of modern sanitation, exposed for a society that has little more understanding of its own life-supporting infrastructure than it does the bone structure of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

I’m sure you’d like to see your job sites exposed like that, too. When you have to replace or repair underground pipes, you don’t have the luxury of being able to see everything that lies below the surface. That’s why good locating equipment — and a thorough understanding of how to properly use it — is so important.

Sweetwater Utility Exploration is one of the contractors featured in this issue. The company, based in Troutman, North Carolina, offers vacuum excavation along with electromagnetic and ground-penetrating radar locating services throughout the Northeast and as far south as Florida.

Thoroughness is critical when locating and mapping underground infrastructure, and it’s one of the hallmarks of Sweetwater’s work. Crews mark every utility on a job site and will also conduct records research on properties for clients. After surveying the job site, crews map the area and compare those maps to the records they received to confirm the location of all utilities and other underground obstacles. When clients determine the proper location for new utilities, Sweetwater uses its custom-built vacuum excavation equipment to pothole.

Nothing is left to chance. That’s how you have to approach every utility locating scenario. It all starts with good equipment and a complete understanding of how to properly use it. The Tech Perspectives in this issue should provide a little insight in that regard.

The basics — equipment, technology, technique and the overall science of locating — are all detailed in this issue. These stories are no substitute for experience, but they’re a nice complement and should reinforce the good practices you’re already familiar with. And for the uninitiated, they also serve as a great introduction to the technology behind locating equipment, and an overview of the techniques you’ll need to understand before tackling your own locating work.

You’ll never be able to strip away every bit of dirt and completely expose your job site, but with good locating equipment and a thorough understanding of how to use it properly, you’ll have a clear picture of everything that lies below the surface.

I hope you find these stories helpful, and I hope they help you keep safety top of mind at all times.

Enjoy this month’s issue.



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