CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

Construction Services

[Name of the Institute]

Construction Services

Resolving Underground Services

If you are digging or disturbing the earth you should take care to avoid damaging underground services. Underground electrical cables can be particularly hazardous because they often look like pipes and it is impossible to tell if they are live just by looking at them. Damage to underground electrical cables can cause fatal or severe injury and the law link to external website says you must take precautions to avoid danger (Brandon, 1995). Excavation work should be properly managed to control risks, including:

Planning the work

Using cable plans

Cable locating devices

Safe digging practices

If you are excavating near your own cables , then someone who is experienced in underground cable detection techniques should help you locate them using suitable equipment. You may need to make underground cables dead for the work to proceed safely. Be aware that electricity companies are required to give five days' notice to customers whose supply is to be disconnected. Plans or other suitable information about all buried services in the area should be obtained and reviewed before any excavation work starts. If the excavation work is an emergency, and plans and other information cannot be found, the work should be carried out as though there are live buried services in the area.

Excavation work should be carried out carefully and follow recognized safe digging practices. Once a locating device has been used to determine cable positions and routes, excavation may take place, with trial holes dug using suitable hand tools as necessary to confirm this (Brandon, 2005).

Subsoil Investigation

Site investigation is a process of site exploration consisting of boring, sampling and testing so as to obtain geotechnical information for a safe, practical and economical geotechnical evaluation and design. Generally it is an exploration or discovery of the ground conditions especially on untouched site. In other words the main purpose of site subsoil investigation is to determine within practical limits, the depth, thickness, extent and compositions of each subsoil stratum, the depth and type of rock, the depth and composition of groundwater, the strength, compressibility and hydraulic characteristics of soil strata required by geotechnical engineers (Kinori, 1960).

Sometimes it is also known as geotechnical investigation. Subsoil investigation provides data on surface and underground conditions at the proposed site. Samples may be obtained for visual inspection and to determine physical and index properties. Depending on the site use, relatively undisturbed samples may be obtained to make estimates of engineering properties for strength, stability and water flow.

The direct methods of testing described in this chapter are at the centre of routine ground investigation. They provide the opportunity to obtain samples for visual description and index testing, which are the primary ways in which the strata at a site are recognized, and for sampling and much of the in situ testing needed for parameter determination, as well as allowing the installation of instrumentation such as Piezometers.

Trial Pitting

Trial pits provide the best method of obtaining very detailed information on strength, stratification, pre-existing shear surfaces, and discontinuities ...