GOING UNDERGROUND?

FENCING CONTRACTORS TAKE NOTE!

Murray Peat of chartered surveyors Fisher German manages the Linewatch Pipeline Safety organisation that seeks to promote safe working practices to utility contractors and landowners planning work close to high pressure pipelines.

Murray, who joined Fisher German in 2010 as a pipeline technician, commented: “Every year damage to our pipelines is sustained or narrowly avoided by contractors undertaking work without doing the necessary utility searches. Our networks of underground pipelines carry oil, gas and chemical products at extremely high pressure and if damaged or ruptured, could result in massive irreversible damage to the environment and injury or even death to those on-site!

“There have been an increasing number of fencing related pipeline infringements and near misses over the past few years prompting the question, do you know what’s below?

“Recently, a fencing contractor installed a 200mm wooden fence post directly onto a 200mm steel pipeline, with an operating pressure of 46 bar. The landowner was aware of the location of the pipeline but failed to inform the contractor, thus, no prior contact was made with the pipeline operator prior to the works beginning.

“The post was installed using a hydraulic post knocker and as a result of this work, the pipeline and wrapping were damaged. Once alerted, the pipeline operator imposed a temporary pressure restriction on the pipeline whilst the fence post was extracted, and the pipeline exposed to check the extent of the damage.

“This could have been a more serious incident had the pipeline been breached and would have certainly caused serious injury to the fencing operatives and massive irreversible pollution to the environment,” added Murray

There are several things to bear in mind whilst undertaking fencing works according to Murray.

“Have all the necessary searches been completed for underground services? Linewatch encourage the use of Line Search Before You Dig www.lsbud.co.uk, a free-to-use online service to search for underground utilities prior to works beginning.

“Do not rely on Landowner information as to where pipelines and other utilities run across their land and always check the area for marker posts when arriving onsite. These marker posts will outline the presence of a pipeline and the contact information for the pipeline operator. Never assume that pipeline run in straight lines between markers.

“We have produced an educational animation regarding the safe planning and undertaking of fencing works near our pipelines which can be viewed at www.linewatch.org.uk/videos,” added Murray.

More information on pipeline safety can be found at www.linewatch.org.uk or by contacting linewatch@fishergerman.co.uk