Tips for Optimizing Underground Utility Maintenance Work
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Underground utility maintenance work applies to utilities in all sectors, from buried power lines to sub-surface gas and water pipes. Unlike other types of maintenance, underground work has its own set of unique challenges. What follows are some tips for optimizing these efforts.
Underground Utility Maintenance Best Practices
To view the full list of tips, check out this Energy Central article. Here is an abbreviated list of the top-5 most important tips from the article:
- Notify the proper authorities, for example by calling 811, before starting the work. This promotes safety by revealing potentially important information about the buried infrastructure by ensuring everything is shut off and will reduce the odds that something can get damaged and create a service interruption.
- Inform nearby homes and businesses that repair work is scheduled and could result in temporary service interruptions. Doing this will help ensure that residents do not get an unpleasant surprise, helping to preserve the utility’s reputation.
- Review and comply with all safety permits and OSHA requirements, critical given that much of this type of work occurs within confined spaces that could be at risk of caving in or housing hazardous gasses.
- Ensure all employees utilize the proper personal protective equipment or PPE.
- Test all systems before and after maintenance. This will help identify any previously unknown unsafe conditions as well as ensure the maintenance work did not compromise anything.
There is little doubt that entering confined spaces to work on sub-surface utility infrastructure is dangerous, and in addition, one wrong move could create outages for one or more local utility services. Although this type of work is not directly related to emergency preparedness, it does have relevancy because part of being prepared is taking steps to minimize outages and maximize employee safety. And when it comes to underground utility maintenance work, these objectives are as important as ever.
