Utility Contractor Inspection

Utility contractor inspections ensure the safety of your property and those who work there. Beneath every well paved street and smoothly manicured lawn is a network of pipes and cables. Utilities run around, over, and alongside each other. Sometimes, they may even run through each other. Cross boring (digging out and placing a pipe or cable through an existing pipe/cable) poses a significant risk to health and safety. Utility contractor inspections look for cross boring and allows you to take rapid action against it.

Complicated utility line maps

First, how does cross boring occur? These accidental crosses are dangerous. There are maps of every pipe (and cable, should there be underground cables that need to be placed for electricity, etc.) in a property. However, these maps take a great deal of skill to read. A technician in a rush can easily think they’ll clear a pipe, and then not. Additionally, even if the utility contractor is paying careful attention, mistakes can still happen. Human errors associated with cross boring, often lead to dangerous conditions.

The dangers of cross boring

Cross boring can create dangerous situations. There are many utility lines that shouldn’t be crossed. The main dangers come from natural gas or sewer pipes that are bored into. Leaks can be dangerous on their own. The real danger, however, comes from the secondary pipe. A natural gas line that’s bored into by an electric cable could spark and explode. A sewer line that has corrosive fluids dripping into it could prove, if not as combustible as natural gas, still a significant risk for the people and buildings on top of the line. 

Utility contractor inspection basics

The good news is that cross bores can be avoided with attention to detail and careful inspection of area maps. Your utility contractors, and anyone who works on your pipes, should make planning the largest part of the job. A basic utility contractor inspection can also turn up instances of cross-boring quickly and easily, allowing you to take action before a disaster strikes. 

A lateral launching robot is most often deployed during cross bore inspections. The robot carries a powerful camera on the end of a flexible arm. This allows it to take comprehensive pictures of the entire length of your pipes, from a manhole to the base of your building’s foundation. If there has been cross boring, it will easily show up on a visual inspection of your pipes. 

Utility contractor inspections are a key part of a comprehensive inspection. Cross boring poses a significant threat to safety. Advanced Pipe Repair maintains the level of technology necessary to turn an inspection into a simple procedure. With lateral launching robotics, a comprehensive utility contractor inspection is easier than ever.