Ground Disturbance Permit Support
The permitting process and Safe Work Permit are the first step of safe work practices whether the job site is in a chemical facility, refinery, or a commercial area. Every work permit starts with a Job Safety and Hazard Assessment, especially a ground disturbance or excavation permit.
Prior to an excavation the ground should and must be assessed for unknown utilities or buried obstructions that essentially could pose hazard to the work process. This is part of the due diligence that every permit writer or area owner should require from contractors or plant employees in order to issue a Safe Work Permit for the job site thus let the work started.
One of the most effective ways to support Safe Work Practices is to perform a comprehensive Subsurface Utility Investigation on Quality Level B (also known as QLB) and then follow it up with a Quality Level A investigation.
Applied Geophysical methods are suitable to conduct QLB investigations with. They are part of the noninvasive investigations that are suitable for mapping out unknown underground utilities and/or obstructions whether they are vertical or linear.
There is an example in the following images that indicates a utility mapping on QLB. The first image indicates the actual work site, images #2 and #3 are the result of scanning and locate. Image #4 is an actual GIS map transformed into an appropriate NAD83 (North American Datum Easting and Northing coordinate) Zone. Located target accuracy is 3-5cm (1 ½-2 inch).
As a result of a comprehensive Subsurface Utility Investigation all locatable known and unknown utilities are mapped out in a transferable and portable file form for further use of planning.
Actual work site.
Trenching
Result of GPR and Locate
GIS map transformed into an appropriate NAD83 (North American Datum Easting and Northing coordinate) Zone
