When the ground needed to be excavated in a substation near water treatment works, the contractors chose Vacuum Excavation as the safest method for the job and so, they got in touch with the CSE team who were more than happy to help.
The ground that needed to be exposed to access the underground service was 1 metre square and the contractors were fully aware that 24 live cables lay underneath, which made the excavation job slightly tricky and fraught with potential danger.
Scoping Safe Excavation
Ensuring that a safe excavation went ahead without striking any of the services meant that mechanical digging was ruled out, as it could not provide enough control to ensure that all 24 cables would be avoided whilst the ground was being cleared.
Manual digging provided a higher risk of personal injury if any live services were stuck and so, CSE were called to the site to safely excavate the buried assets using Vacuum Excavation.
A combination of the Suction Excavator’s remote-control boom and on-board air lance were used in order to complete the project without any incidents occurring. With the sheer precision control of the excavator’s boom, complete accuracy was achieved.
Putting Safety First
Even though these jobs may seem small, they are a great example as to why safe excavation ought to be the very first option when exposing live services. Consequences such as personal injury and service disruption can occur if safety isn’t taken into consideration.
Vacuum Excavation offers a faster, more cost-effective solution than manual hand digging. A standard Vacuum Excavation can remove 2m3 of spoil per hour, while an inbuilt skip can hold up to 10m3 before it needs to be emptied. In short, one suction excavator will complete a job in the fraction of time in which it would take a team of labourers or a digger.
Another beneficial aspect of Vacuum Excavation is that it is a significant time saver.
If you would like to enquire about any of our systems or hire our team for work, please get in touch with a member of our team who will be happy to answer any questions.
