Abstract
With the rapid expansion in HDD use, there has been a responding increase in safety incidents. 3rd party safety issues, in particular damage to crossing utilities in the bore path, will become a much bigger issue for drillers. Utilities and lead contractors are becoming more focused on this issue and liability issues around it. This paper will also draw on presentations made to the Common Ground Alliance conference in Florida in March 2017 on this topic, reflect on trenchless information from the latest Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) report and analyse how large this problem is becoming. It will also discuss options to help drillers and utilities identify and avoid buried infrastructure in the bore path. This was a hot topic among contractors and gas utilities in the discussion panel after a buried utility safety paper given at the October 2016 APGA(What is this) conference.
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