The Challenges of Utility Locating Part 1
As an excavator or utility locator, you understand the importance of accurately identifying underground infrastructure to prevent costly and dangerous strikes. However, some utilities can be notoriously difficult to locate, putting your crew and the public at risk.
Buried utilities come in a variety of materials, sizes, and depths, each presenting unique locating challenges. Older, non-metallic pipes made of materials like clay, concrete, or plastic offer little to no electromagnetic signal for traditional locating equipment to detect. Utilities installed at greater depths or in congested underground environments can be obscured, making them difficult to pinpoint without the proper technology.
By understanding the limitations of standard locating methods and embracing innovative solutions, like the Pipehorn, excavators and locators can enhance safety, reduce the risk of strikes, and ensure the integrity of critical infrastructure. Investing in the right tools and training is a proactive step toward protecting your crew, the public, and the utilities you’re tasked with safeguarding.
Plastic Pipes
The shift towards using plastic pipes in utility installations has introduced a significant challenge in utility locating. Unlike traditional metal pipes, which can be detected using electromagnetic signals, plastic pipes are non-conductive.
Why Are They Difficult to Locate?
Traditional methods of utility detection that rely on electromagnetic fields simply do not work on plastic. As a result, these pipes remain virtually invisible to standard detection equipment. The widespread use of plastic pipes for water and gas means that this invisible threat is becoming more common, increasing the risk of accidental strikes during excavation.
A common method to locate these hidden lines is to insert a metallic duct rod or fish tape into the pipe, but these can be short by 50 to 200 feet. They also act like a dead-end path that isn’t grounded on the other end. The wire essentially floats inside the plastic conduit, making it difficult for a signal to travel.
How Pipehorn Helps
Pipehorn’s ultra-high (480kHz) frequency can overcome the ungrounded obstacle as well as the short conductor scenario. This gives you the best shot at energizing that inserted rod or tape and getting closer to the end of it, allowing you to trace further.
Short Side Services and Stub Outs
Main lines that carry water or gas around town typically run along the side of roads. Service lines branch off from these mains to reach residential or commercial buildings. Sometimes, future service lines, called stub outs, are established when the main is installed but aren’t yet connected to a meter or building.
Why Are They Difficult to Locate?
Standard locating practices often require starting with a lower frequency, which is ideal for long, continuous lines but not for shorter side services or stub outs. The higher the frequency used, the more success you’ll have applying a signal to these shorter lines. Many modern locating tools use automatic gain on their receivers, which may inadvertently focus on stronger signals from the main line, making it difficult to detect the weaker signals from shorter service lines.
How Pipehorn Helps
Pipehorn offers the highest frequency available on the market, optimized for use at 480kHz. This allows you to detect even the shortest of conductors and reach the endpoints of dead-end lines. The sensitivity control on the receiver is fully in the user’s control, enabling precise tuning to the desired signal.
Inserted Services
When updating old steel or cast iron lines, a new plastic service line may be inserted into the existing old steel pipe. This method reduces the number of abandoned services in the ground, and allows a safer, more efficient process.
Why Are They Difficult to Locate?
The old steel service pipe may no longer be electrically connected to the main line, and often lacks a direct connection point for a transmitter. This forces the need for induction. Additionally, these shorter sections of pipe don’t conduct well due to their length.
How Pipehorn Helps
With 60 years of experience in high-frequency induction, Pipehorn offers the best chance to locate these challenging services. Our 480kHz frequency sweeps across the site, lighting up shorter sections of iron or steel pipe where unlocatable plastic services have been inserted.
Worn and Broken Tracer Wires and Tapes
When installing plastic utility pipes, utility companies typically install a tracer wire alongside the pipe. Older systems may use metallic foil tape as a tracer.
Why Are They Difficult to Locate?
Over time, tracer tapes and wires can corrode or break under soil pressure, reducing their conductivity and ability to carry a signal. Additionally, sometimes installers fail to connect pieces of wire from different service lines to the main line, resulting in shorter, ungrounded sections of wire.
How Pipehorn Helps
The ultra-high frequency of Pipehorn is ideal for overcoming breaks in the wire and pushing through corroded areas. Unlike lower frequencies that struggle with aging tracer wires, Pipehorn’s technology excels in lighting up these older tracers.
Unenergized Power Lines
Private power lines that feed areas such as parking lot lights, irrigation valves, pool pumps, and landscape lighting may not always stay energized.
Why Are They Difficult to Locate?
These lines can be inconvenient to locate when they’re unenergized. Without an electrical current running through them, passive signals can’t be detected by standard locators in passive mode. Making a direct connection with an active transmitter may be off limits or inaccessible.
How Pipehorn Helps
480kHz induction with Pipehorn provides the best chance of energizing and locating shorter ungrounded lines. It allows you to quickly sweep the area to determine where these lines are running without needing a known starting point.
Cast Iron Pipes
Cast iron pipes, often used in the gas industry, are made in sections and connected at bell joints with rubberized gaskets.
Why Are They Difficult to Locate?
Rubber gaskets in bell joints sometimes prevent metal-to-metal connections, leaving you with several short sections of pipe rather than a long, continuous conductor.
How Pipehorn Helps
The 480kHz Pipehorn was specifically designed to solve this problem. It can jump past those joints and allow you to continue locating the line with confidence.
Why Pipehorn Is the Solution You Need
Pipehorn steps in, providing the right technology needed to navigate these challenges with confidence. Pipehorn’s utility locating tools are designed to handle the complexities of modern underground infrastructure.
But the benefits of a Pipehorn go beyond just the ability to find what others can’t. It helps you keep your projects on schedule and within budget. It also enhances safety, reducing the likelihood of accidents that can occur when utilities are mistakenly struck. All backed by a customer support team ready to help you through your next project.
Don’t Leave Your Next Project to Chance
In today’s fast-paced and complex work environments, you can’t afford to take chances with your utility locating process. Difficult-to-locate utilities are more common than ever, and the risks associated with missing them are too great to ignore. By investing in Pipehorn, you’re equipping your team with the right tools for the job—locators that provide the accuracy, reliability, and confidence you need to tackle even the most challenging projects.
Don’t let invisible threats, depth, and congestion jeopardize your next project. Invest in Pipehorn, and ensure that your team has the tools they need to work safely, efficiently, and confidently every time they dig.
