Features

Locate underground utilities more safely with potholing

by Don Buckner
Founder and President
Vac-Tron Equipment, LLC

Following the building boom in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, and the push to put cable, wire, and pipes underground, damage to underground utilities began increasing exponentially.

Tens of thousands of miles of utility lines became vulnerable to individuals and companies with a need to dig. Resulting damage interrupted utility service and threatened life and property.

The one-call concept came about in the early 60′s in response to the needs of the construction industry and of the utilities to protect their underground lines. Instead of calling each company individually, an excavator could make one phone call and reach several utilities. Today, there are more than 100 one-call notification systems in the U.S. and abroad.

Best Case/Worst Case

Creating one-call systems was a huge step forward. However, even with one-call in place, backhoes, augers, hand digging, and other mechanical methods continued to result in more than 700,000 strikes annually to underground utilities including gas lines, water and sewer pipes, and electrical, cable, and fiber optic lines.

In a best-case scenario, strikes inconvenience individuals, households, businesses, and services. Worst case, strikes cause outages, explosions, fires, gushing water, disruption of essential systems such as those used by hospitals, 911 and airports, evacuations, downtime for businesses, and worse. Lives have been shattered. Dollars have been lost.

Vacuum to Locate Underground Utilities…Can You Dig It?

Today, potholing (the procedure of exposing and providing visual confirmation of buried utilities in order to identify their precise locations and depths) has made it safer to locate underground utilities, and the use of vacuum excavation technology has revolutionized the industry.

As a result, one-call paint marks and flags are now only the FIRST STEP in making the process of locating underground utilities safer.

The technology and technique for locating underground utilities more safely using vacuum excavation is both readily available and affordable, and already considered by many municipalities as a Best Practice. In fact, many governmental entities and municipalities no longer allow the use of backhoes for the physical locating of underground utilities, citing the risk of damaging the utility or utilities. Many have implemented policies mandating the use of vacuum excavation.

Backhoes, augers, and other mechanical equipment should not be used to find underground utilities within 10 feet of a work zone. In addition, extreme care must be taken to prevent utility damage while digging by hand. Never use picks, round pointed shovels, or any other type of sharp tool. Only square, blunt non-sharp tools should be considered for use.

Trust … But Verify

All utilities within 10 feet of a work site should be found and physically seen (located) to identify exact location and depth. It’s not enough to accept paint marks or flags, when it’s simple and safer to physically verify paint marks or flags.

The following are simple steps to locating underground utilities more safely.

General Practices

1. 48 hours in advance:

• Call 811 or your local One-Call number to order locates.
• Notify any other possible utility owners, which the One-Call Center does not represent, to mark all their utilities within 10 feet of the work area.

2. Get completed locates in writing.

3. Physically locate utilities within 10 feet of the work site using a vacuum excavation method with the use of high pressure water (up to 4000 psi), an approved non-cutting nozzle (zero degree nozzles are not allowed), high-pressure air (with a dust containment system in place), or dry vacuum. Make sure nozzles have been tested not to cause harm.

4. When possible, return original soil material to inspection hole and compact so inspection holes retain their original surface elevation.

5. Document locations and depths of all utilities and make sure they are available at the jobsite. When needed, these should be included with permit applications.

Plowing, Trenching and Directional Drilling; General Excavating

1. Expose and visually witness all utility crossings (using methods described in the General Practices) prior to the crossing and at the crossing location. Utility lines should have a minimum separation of not less than 18 inches, subject to inspection.

2. Physically locate all existing utilities running within 10 feet on both sides, parallel to the intended work zone or area. Physical locations should occur every 50 feet.

3. Shut off handles for existing utilities should be in place in the work zone while work is being done.

For more information about locating underground utilities using vacuum, visit www.vacuumexcavation.com or call 1-888-822-8766.

Editor’s note: In the mid 1990’s, Don Buckner recognized that huge increases in the number of buried cables, utility, gas and fiber optic lines also brought huge increases in the inherent dangers associated with cutting those lines…dangers including prolonged outages, explosions, serious injuries, and exorbitant fines.

At the time, most locating was done with backhoes or by digging by hand. Don saw an urgent need to create equipment which could make physically locating underground lines safer, and in 1997, armed with this vision, he launched VAC-TRON Equipment, LLC, which today is the industry leader in vacuum excavation.
Today, the tremendous demand for the product is testament to the emergence of vacuum excavation as a permanent step in underground technology. Now, he has turned his attention to furthering education about the importance of using vacuum excavation for undergrounding and locating utilities, and is advocating on behalf of the industry to help those at every level understand what vacuum excavation can save in real and human costs.