Hey guys, Ben here
Geelong Cable Locations
so I'm out on site today
and I want to do a video to show you
a gas pipe that got hit
but to show you a contractors point of view
We always see these incidents that happen
I'll put on Facebook
everybody talks about that you always get Dial Before You Dig plans
They should of got plans and a certified locator
All this stuff that you assume the contractor did wrong
but for once I've been able to hear from the contractor
what they actually did
what they tried to do beforehand to avoid hitting any services
what they actually did when they did the job
and why the service still got hit
so let me walk you through the job and show you what's happened
why the gas pipe still got hit
and what they did to try and avoid it
Come have a look
So they're just redoing the water main along the street
You see they've got the temporary feed along there at the moment
They've already done a fair bit along here
So in Geelong
and a lot of areas in western Victoria
the gas company will come out for free
If you call the gas company and ask them to come locate the gas pipes
they'll come out for free
They won't charge you
and they'll locate from the gas main in the street
and the gas from your meter
to the street
so if your meter is next to your house then it's all good
If the meter is at the front of your property
then they won't find the service from the gas meter
to the house
They will find everything from the gas meter
to the street and the gas mains as well
So they've called the gas guys
They've come out and located all the gas in the area
and let me show you this meter over here
so you see in the corner just there
So there's a gas meter just there
and the gas guys have found, that meter has trace wire on it
and they've got it going out to the front here
so that is out of the way
They've gone and located all the other
gas services along the street
and all the other services along the street there
and made sure nothing is in the way
so then they could dig down and do their works
They've come down and started digging
They've actually bored along here
so you'll see underneath the car there
They've gone and cut into the water main there
They've bored through
and all of sudden over here... bang!
They've hit a gas pipe right there
A gas service
so they've found a plastic gas service going across the road
They've hit it and gas has gone everywhere
and been a bit of an issue
So in there is where the gas pipe was
and the gas pipe was running that way there
Along that way
so they're digging along this way
They're digging along here
and the gas pipe they hit was running along that way here
and it didn't make sense to them
because it's not those units
because those units are getting fed along the front there
It's not this house here
because this house here is being fed up to the front that way there
It's not those units over there
They're being fed across the road
So the gas guys have come out and clamped it off
They have stopped the emergency
and then they've had to try and work out what's going on
Where is this gas pipe coming from
and they've determined that
the gas actually goes across the road so
See how we've got these
relatively new units or townhouses
that are there
Well before they were there, there was an old house here
in the area
and their gas meter was underneath that fence there
on the other side of that fence
That is where the gas meter was
and what they've done
when they've gone and built these
they've taken the old gas meter away
and all they've done is capped it off
at the property
They haven't capped it off at the main
They just left it active
so the pipe that was going under the road
through there
was still active
was still a live gas pipe
and it was only capped off at the house
so of course
nobody knew and it wasn't on the plan of course
because gas services aren't on plans
Why would they want to do that and help us out
Anyway, a little dig to the gas companies
so yeah, no one knew it was there
and this what I mean when I say a pipe is unavoidable
They're digging
They're digging up along through here
How are they going to know there's a gas pipe right here
so the argument came forward is
and why I've come out here is they've said
Can you locate it for us?
Can you find it?
So I've come out...
The gas pipe wasn't locatable
No trace wire on it, just a plastic pipe
so I've gone through with the ground penetrating radar
and you'll see my pink marks
just there
Wasn't the best locate in the road
The area we are in, in Geelong
the soil is not in the best condition
but I have been able to find it
in the footpath and in the grass there
so
So yes, I was able to find the plastic pipe
It's only a real small pipe
but yes I was able to find it
but what I've explained to him is that
so yeah, the question was
can you find all of them for us?
The ones we don't know
The problem that I tried to explain to him
is that we can't
There are ways to do it but it's not economical
I knew to look right at that spot
and that's why I was able to determine it
I also had a look another 10 meters that way and that way
and there were a lot of other areas that
could've been pipes
could've been rocks
could've been tree roots
could've been a whole lot of other things
Where ground penetrating radar works well
is if you know something is in the area
you can then go down and pinpoint it and really try to find it
If you don't know something is in the area
then, you're searching for a needle in a haystack
and you could just be yeah
potholing a heap of spots
marking a heap of different things out without knowing
that it's definetly it or not
So
to give you a better picture
this is where they're working
so see the whole way down that street
The whole way down... ah you're not going to see it
You can just see the end
The whole way down there
It doesn't make sense for me
to walk along with the ground penetrating radar
the whole way up the street
to try and find a little plastic gas pipe
because I'm not going to be able to find it
If I know there is one in a particular area
then I will be able to find it
All the others, I'll be marking spots everywhere
with rocks, tree roots and all sorts of stuff
If the soil was good condition in this area
then I'd say yeah, maybe it's worth a go
but when the soil is s**t then it's just crazy
So this is sort of one of those incidents where
there's nearly not much they could of done to avoid it
No one knows there's a gas pipe there
How would you know there's a gas pipe there
How would you know that the gas pipe's been capped off at the house How would you know there's a gas pipe there
How would you know that the gas pipe's been capped off at the house
and not at the main
You'd think that
Why don't you dig up the road and cap off the main
Someone is just being lazy I reckon
so yeah, what do you do
Every time you come across a new block of units do you
search around to think is there a gas pipe here
Has it been capped off
Has it not been capped off
What's it go
I don't think there's much you can do
I just think you go ahead and do your works
If come across something like that and you hit it
An incident like this is what I call an accident
There's not much that could of been done to avoid it
Actually I've got a couple locators that watch my channel
Guys, if you guys are watching
Do you have a better idea
Tell me what you would suggest
I've said to him, you could do 3D
We could do a 3D scan
Go through the whole lot and do a 3D radar of it all
but again you're looking at a couple grand at least to do that
and the results
in the s**t conditions, in the s**t soil
There's really not much you can do
Yeah so often you'll see us put on Facebook
of incidents that happen
and we'll put on there they should of got Dial Before You Dig plans
They should of got a certified locator out on site
They should of potholed it
Should of done all this sort of stuff
but it's good to come out to a job site and see
the other side of the coin
find out from the contractor
what did you actually do to try and avoid the incident
Did you try to get locators
Did you get a locator
What did you do to avoid that gas pipe being hit
so yeah, often
often we never hear this side of it
We always hear of the incident
of why it occurred
but you never hear from the contractors side
to see what they actually did beforehand
so it's good
That's why I thought I'd do a video to show you this one
because it's good to see that they did everything they could
to try and avoid hitting services
There are some contractors out there that are doing a good job
that are trying their best to
go home alive
and do a nice job
So yeah that is about it
I hope you're all having a lovely day
and we'll talk again soon, bye