A Groundworks Contractor has been fined after an operative received serious burns to his face, chest, abdomen, groin, both arms and both legs, amounting to approximately 50% total body surface area burns.
The HSE has reported that the Groundworks Contractor was installing fence posts at Cummins Power Generation Site in Ramsgate.
The operative was using an electric breaker, when they struck an 11kV power cable. The HSE found that the contractor had failed to source and refer to the underground services plans prior to breaking the ground to determine the location of any cables within the planned working area. They also failed to provide their operatives with cable identification equipment to further locate any cables within that area.
Even if the contractor had provided the equipment, would they have provided the operative with training to be able to use it?
If in doubt, and especially at a Power Generation Site, it may be worthwhile employing a specialist.
GEOTEC Surveys Ltd work with a number of Power Distribution Companies, as well as National Grid to provide comprehensive Underground Mapping Surveys, and have done so on a number of flood alleviation and re-fencing projects. They can be quite busy, as the below sample indicates.
