Cat & Genny – Location and avoidance of underground apparatus CAT01

What is a cable avoidance tool?

Cable Avoidance Tools assist in identifying the location of buried cables and pipes before excavation, reducing the risk of injury to personnel and damage to utilities.

What does the training course include?

• Have a basic understanding of the industry, the dangers of working in the industry and their responsibilities as an operator
• Have a working knowledge of the manufacturer’s handbook for the particular equipment to be used with other sourses of information and relevant legislation
• Be able to locate and identify the controls of the machine and explain their functions
• Conduct all pre-operational checks in accordance with manufacturers and legislative requirements
• Configure the equipment for use
• Define underground services
• Know how to identify the different types of underground services
• Carry out detection tasks
• Identify the risks of excavating near to underground services, and the safe digging practices that should be adopted.
• Environmental considerations
• Storage and transport of cable avoidance tool
• Carry out all end of shift and shut down procedures

Venue and equipment requirements:

• Suitable and safe area to operate equipment
• Known underground services
• Suitable and safe area to complete paperwork
• Suitable welfare facilities
• Cable avoidance tool and genny
• Operators’ manual
• Risk assessment completed

PPE Requirements:

• Suitable head protection
• Suitable eye protection
• Suitable work clothes including wet weather
• Gloves
• Suitable work boots including steel toe protection
• High Viz

HSE further information:

• Avoiding danger from underground services HSG47 https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg47.pdf
• PUWER Regulation
• https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l22.pdf

Practical assessment criteria:

• Pre use and operational checks
• Demonstrate safe and efficient use of machines
• Demonstrate pinpointing and tracing in “P” mode
• Demonstrate pinpointing and tracing in “R” mode
• Demonstrate pinpointing and tracing in “A” mode
• Shut down and storage requirements

On-site training courses delivered:

Southwest – Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Avon, Somerset, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire

Southeast – Oxfordshire, Kent, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Middlesex

Midlands – Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Shropshire

East Anglia – Hertfordshire, Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk

Aylesbury, Banbury, Basingstoke, Bath, Bedford, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Cirencester, Cheltenham, Coventry, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Hungerford, Milton Keynes, Newbury, Northampton, Oxford, Peterborough, Plymouth, Reading, Salisbury, Southampton, Stroud, Swindon, Taunton, Warwick, Winchester, Witney, Worcester, Yeovil