About Telstra - Dial Before You Dig - Safe Digging

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Duty Of Care

Avoiding cable damage is as simple as having the right tools, the right skills and the right information.

It's important that you know what your obligations are when it comes to protecting one of Australia's major communications networks.

To make it easy for you, Telstra has published a simple guide which outlines the 'good practice' requirements for anyone involved in excavation.

All constructors have a Duty of Care to observe with regard to Telstra cables when digging or excavating.
A cable location plan should be sought sufficiently in advance of construction activities by visiting the Dial Before You Dig website or dialling 1100 before you dig.
Plans of Telstra's network will be provided upon request and constructors must undertake manual exposure ie. potholing, when excavating or working closer to Telstra plant than the following approach distances:
1. For plant in kerbed and guttered or otherwise established footway reserves - a minimum clear distance of 600mm must be maintained from where it could be reasonably presumed that plant would reside
2. In non-established or unformed reserves/terrain, this approach distance must be increased to 1.5 metres
3. In country/rural ie. where terrain is open to wider variations in reasonably presumed plant presence, the following minimum separations for approach distances must be maintained:
  - parallel to major plant in rural areas 10 metres
  - parallel to other plants in rural areas 5 metres
  - hand digging parallel to major plant 1 metre.
Potholing needs to be undertaken manually with care and employing techniques least likely to damage cables, for example shovel blades/trowels should be oriented parallel to the cable rather than digging across the cable.
Telstra may hold constructors liable for any damage to plant where Telstra considers a breach of care has occurred.

How To Dig Safely

Avoiding cable damage is as simple as having the right tools, the right skills and the right information.

Cable damage can be avoided by simply remembering the four Ps:

Plan
Pothole
Protect
Proceed

Plan

In the planning stages of every project you need to obtain a cable location plan. To do this visit the Dial Before You Dig website or dial 1100.

Plan request forms can also be faxed to Dial Before You Dig on 1300 652 077.

When you have received your cable location plan, there is one important thing to remember - Telstra cable plans provide information about cable presence only, they do not pinpoint the exact location of cables.

Study your plan thoroughly. Check to see if it relates to the area you requested, make sure you understand the plan. If you are unclear about what the symbols mean, what our cables look like, or how to proceed, please call Telstra (on the phone number which accompanies your Telstra plan) for assistance.

Pothole

Once you have the general information on where the cables are, you will need to dig carefully by hand to expose them before using any excavation or heavy digging equipment.

After observing all visible signs such as location of pits and manholes, and possibly after having had a physical cable location completed where indication marks are painted on the ground, choose the spot where potholing is required.

With a shovel, dig the ground out above the nominal location of the Telstra cable.

While digging, it is important to dig with the blade of the shovel parallel to the cable route, especially where the cables are direct buried ie. not enclosed in a conduit.

Digging with the blade parallel minimises the chance of the shovel actually hitting the cable. More likely, the shovel blade will "snag" the cable as you try to lift the shovel. Work the shovel out of the ground and lift it out of the way. Clear away the dirt and you have exposed the cable.

Sometimes several potholes will need to be dug manually to determine the exact location of cables to avoid damage. This is because deviations in the cable alignment can occur.

It is the responsibility of project managers to access information about underground utilities and advise subcontractors and other construction workers as appropriate. When principals employ subcontractors, there is a joint liability to protect the network.

Protect

Often you can't avoid working in the vicinity of cables, but their fragility surprises many people.

One of the biggest roles for Telstra's Network Integrity Teams is advising people on how to move the cables to a safer place while work proceeds around them.

Cables need to be handled gently and there are a number of simple techniques to help avoid damage.

Proceed

Only when you have carried out the first three Ps, can you proceed with your project.

Our joint aim should be to avoid damaging the network and to rely on each other's expertise to make sure this is the case.

The more often we work together, the easier the process will become.

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