Can you guess which ones?
That implies that the others have got complete maps - which I find much more surprising. Every time that I have had any dealings with any utility companies - which I do as part of my job - it becomes apparent very early on that they don’t have anything like accurate maps in whatever area I am looking at. And not just for old lines that they inherited - as seems to be the issue here - but for things like fibre optics that I saw them lay myself just 18 months earlier.
Several years ago I was working on water sites and they didn’t even have accurate info about the stuff on their own sites. The head office staff thought they did though. Just the computers did not match reality. Running many of the sites was entirely reliant on the knowledge of site operators who were all about to retire. There was no younger staff being taught anything either.
The fibre is a special level of “fuck you”, as the altnets are deliberately leaving the mapping as late as possible, to gain a competitive advantage.
Whenever groundwork is done you’re supposed to apply for some kind of permit and part of that process is that they’re supposed to tell you if there’s any underground utilities.
I can’t count the number of times though that our engineers have dug up a fiber line or something that we would demonstrably told was not there. It’s great because sometimes you can see on the pavement that it’s being dug up and resurfaced in a different material so there’s obviously something down there, but the paperwork says, nope we just dug it up for no reason there’s nothing down there go mad.
You don’t apply for a permit, you go to LinesearchbeforeUdig - lsbud.co.uk. This is a free service anyone can use, and you’ll get emails from various asset owners with maps of what they have in the area you select. Some might try to charge for this, these ones are assholes.
As far as the law is concerned, it’s up to you to make sure you do it right and the costs for doing it wrong will all fall on your shoulders.
The only permit you need AFAIK is planning permission - which won’t be granted until you convince them you’ve done a sufficient line search. Aside from that, you need permission from the land owner, of course.
I can’t guess, and the linked article is paywalled, so I guess I’ll never know.
thanks, but this page doesn’t seem to be loading for me.
Oh interesting, the link I followed to get there allowed me to read it. It’s Southern and Thames water.
Wow I was certain it’d be United Utilities and Thames Water, but I guess it is a 3 member mismanagement shitshow club rather than 2
Ah I was on mobile I must have landed on the AMP version of the site.
If you Google the headline and click through from Google you can read ft
Now I’ll never find the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles lair. Thanks Thatcher
One reason for this lack of mapping is due to the Water and Sewerage companies taking on the ownership of most private sewers, lateral drains and pumping stations. These were transferred into their ownership on the 01/10/2011, pumping stations changed ownership 01/10/2016.
I mean, some of the network has to be well over 150 years old right?
That’s sort of besides the point really, though, no?
If you’re tasked with maintaining a structure (lol) you can be expected to perhaps attempt to know where all the bits you’re responsible for are aren’t you?
But then again, Severn-Trent uses dousing rods to find water mains so who knows what they he’ll they’re actually doing.
