The developer of this rural site was in preparation to start groundworks for the construction of four large family homes and sought our assistance for the identification of existing buried services, which were rumoured to cross the site to serve an existing property. Our client used our survey drawing to establish any existing services which were likely to clash with their planned groundworks and foundations, allowing decisions to be taken on the need to expose and confirm the critical buried services, to adjust the setting-out of the groundworks and foundations, or to divert the buried service to avoid the clash.
We provided a comprehensive three-step ‘survey and search’ service:
- initial walkover survey looking for visible above ground services, manholes/service covers for buried services, and any other service markings or unusual ground features that may indicate service positions
- searches of all main utility company records to establish the approximate location and details for buried utility services
- individual service routes and depths studied in further detail by the use of a Ground Penetrating Radar to sweep main lines through the site, and then running focussed line traces around features picked up from the main line sweep
The suspected positions of buried services and features arising from the above activities were marked on site using biodegradable survey spray paints, with findings transferred onto annotated CAD drawing(s).