Ground Penetrating Radar & Radio Detection Utilized to Locate Utilities inside a Cell Tower Compound
Prior to excavating or drilling it’s always essential to have information as to what underground utilities could possibly be passing through the proposed areas. Not knowing what utilities could be in the area could result in serious injury and potentially cost the contractor a bunch of money to repair anything damaged. These facts are multiplied when working inside a cell tower compound. If any utilities were damaged, the cost of repair would be astronomical.
A general contractor had a project inside a cell tower compound near Tucson, AZ where they were going to be trenching for placement of new electrical and a concrete holding pad. The contractor didn’t have any as-built drawings depicting the paths of existing utilities passing through the compound. It was apparent there were utilities passing through the trenching area but the contractor needed to know exactly where the utilities were so they could design properly. They contacted Ground Penetrating Radar Systems of Arizona to investigate the area to search for underground utilities. The GPRS technician first did a site walk of the compound to see if there were any visible manholes or transformers indicating utilities in the area. GPRS utilized ground penetrating radar & radio detection to locate any utilities in the area. They marked numerous separate utilities passing directly through the proposed trenching location. One of the utilities marked was the main power feed to the cell tower housing. Everything was marked directly on the surface in real time & then communicated to the onsite personnel. GPRS also provided a hand-drawn sketch of the located utilities for future reference. The information provided by GPRS allowed the contractor to plan accordingly so no injuries occurred during the process and no underground utilities were compromised.
It should never be an option to dig, drill, cut, or trench prior to having utilities located. Please contact the experts in utility locating & concrete scanning of GPRS, LLC. in Arizona. Senior Project Manager, Thaddeus Bullock, can be reached at (480) 540-6092 or Thaddeus.bullock@gprsinc.com. For additional information check out the website at www.gprsinc.com.