Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) is a Not For Profit organisation that aims to provide an all-in-one single point of contact for information on underground utility, cable and pipe locating to prevent any accidental damage to Australia’s underground infrastructure. DBYD strives to educate construction crews throughout Australia by providing a free enquiry service that provides a complete and detailed report on any underground utilities located in the area.

Without a Dial Before You Dig enquiry, construction and maintenance crews run the risk of striking cables or pipes underground, potentially causing major disruption to the local public’s basic services and damage to the local infrastructure. Certified locators for Dial Before You Dig such as Dig Safe Geelong are proven experts in all aspects of utility and underground locating and define the standard for locating in Australia.

How did Dial Before You Dig start?

Dial Before You Dig draws its roots from a gas explosion incident in Bibra Lake, WA in 1984. This explosion was caused when a bulldozer struck a high-pressure gas line. Though the driver escaped without injury, the explosion caused major damage to the bulldozer, gas pipeline, nearby infrastructure and high-tension electric towers. This incident sparked a consolidation effort by several major telecommunication and utility companies, including Telstra, SECWA/ATCO Gas Australia and Western Power and Water Corporation to create the Perth One Call System in 1987. From there, the rest of Australia’s States and Territories quickly followed suit, and by the 1990’s the nation-wide Dial Before You Dig service was formed.

How does the Dial Before You Dig service function?

The Dial Before You Dig service begins when excavator crews lodge a free enquiry to either the online website or via phone on 1100. The excavator crew’s project information is then sent to Dial Before You Dig members such as Telstra, Optus, Energex or any other relevant members, who then respond with utility plans of the area and details of their own guidelines on what you may or may not be allowed to do within the area. If there are no plans of the area, or the plans have expired by the lodging date, a Dial Before You Dig Certified Locator such as Dig Safe Geelong can go to the site and perform utility locating work to create a new underground utility plan of the area.

There are several methods that DBYD Certified Locators use in order to locate underground utilities. These methods involve using ground-penetrating radar, non-destructive digging techniques, surveying, electronic locating and more. At Dig Safe Geelong, we supply and maintain all the equipment and highly trained operators needed to perform Dial Before You Dig certified utility locating services for your excavation project. No matter how large or small your project is, if you are excavating, you need to know what might be lying just underneath the surface and for that, you need Dial Before You Dig’s services.

What happens if I don’t use a DBYD Certified Locator?

Dial Before You Dig Certified Locators have the highest standard of achievement in cable, pipe and utility locating in Australia, having undergone rigorous assessment and training to reach that point. By choosing not to use a DBYD Certified Locator, you run the risk of striking an underground utility, potentially causing major damage to nearby structures or cause injury or death. You will be made liable for not choosing a DBYD Certified Locator and may be forced to pay major fines to compensate for the cost of repair/reinstallation or compensation for any individual affected by the incident.

Therefore, it’s in your best interest to choose Dial Before You Dig Certified Locators for any utility location work that you need to be completed. You’ll gain the benefit of highly experienced and accredited utility locators like Dig Safe Geelong that keep up to date on all the latest non-destructive digging and utility locating techniques and technology.

Jobs we offer as a Dial Before You Dig Certified Locator.

Certified Dial Before You Dig locators rely on a wide variety of different locating methods in order to accurately identify the location of underground utilities, and Dig Safe Geelong is no exception. Due to our diverse plant hire and locating experience, Dig Safe Geelong can provide the following services.

3 ways to determine the location of underground utility services.

Hydro-Vacuum Excavations – Vacuum excavators are defined by their ability to provide non-destructive digging services. Regular excavators, dozers, bobcats and other plant hire machines use destructive excavation techniques while working and using them near cables, pipes and other utilities pose the risk of accidental damage. When there is a risk of unknown utilities hidden beneath the surface, uncovering them with hydro vacuum excavations may be your only method of locating underground utilities safely.

At Dig Safe Geelong, we can supply hydro vacuum excavation services with our vacuum trucks for hire. Vacuum sucker trucks use powerful vacuum technology to blast a site with highly pressurised water, turning the soil and earth into a slurry. This slurry is then sucked away from the excavation site and into the vacuum truck for quick and easy removal. With various vacuum truck sizes available from 300 L to 5000 L, Dig Safe Geelong can provide you with the perfect non-destructive digging solution for cable locating in Melbourne and Victoria.

Electronic Locating Services – Electronic locating uses electromagnetic locators to accurately locate any conductive utilities such as electrical cables, fibre optics, storm drains, wastewater pipes, natural gas pipes and more. Dig Safe Geelong’s electronic locators work by using EMFs (electromagnetic fields) to locate metal objects beneath the surface. Most of the time, these metal objects are utilities.

Dig Safe Geelong uses powerful electronic locators, the Radiodetection RD8100 Precision Underground Service Locator for all our electronic locating services that we undertake in Melbourne, Geelong and Victoria. All our electronic locating services are completed with accredited service locators from Dig Safe Geelong, providing a cost-effective and detailed electronic locating service.

Ground Penetrating Radar – Ground penetrating radar or GPR uses powerful radar technology to locate any utilities beneath the surface. They accomplish this by sending radar pulses into the ground, which then produce reflections from subsurface structures. GPR can not only detect structures, but also any cracks, empty spaces and changes in the material underground.

Dig Safe Geelong uses Opera Duo Ground Penetrating Radar machines to locate any underground utilities in Victoria and Geelong. A robust platform for utility locating, our choice of ground penetrating radar technology ensures that you receive fast results and accurate locating data.

Certified Location Organisation

Locating electronic cables often involved getting direct access to the cable. However, due to the sensitive nature of directly accessing information networks, there are privacy and security issues involved with doing so. Not only that but locating teams must be properly trained to interpret information, locate and identify components and work around these networks without damaging them. Utility networks are not public property, and so permission must be given to access these networks. Dig Safe Geelong has a major advantage over uncertified locators as only a registered DBYD Certified Locator that holds a valid Certified Location Organisation (CLO) agreement is authorised to gain access to utility networks for the purposes of locating underground utilities. While Telstra is currently the only service provider to have signed an agreement with DBYD, the CLO program intends for as many utility network providers as possible to sign the agreement.

For a company to be granted permission to access utility networks through the CLO agreement, a locating company must have demonstrated the following attributes:

• Necessary skills to identify which network is located on-site
• Properly calibrated and up-to-date utility location and detection equipment
• Possession of all the required PPE and safety gear to detect unsafe conditions and the capacity to greatly reduce or eliminate any risks while working with them
• Relevant insurance for the type of work the company will perform, to protect the client, the local infrastructure and the business

All CLO agreements are valid for a maximum of two years before they need to be reviewed. All CLO agreements belong to the company, not individual employees.

As a Dial Before You Dig Certified Operator, Telstra Accredited Locator and experts in hydro excavation, Dig Safe Geelong is one of the foremost experts when it comes to utility locating in Geelong, Melbourne and Victoria.

Dig Safe Geelong is a fully comprehensive utility locator that employs modern and powerful technology to safely locate and identify all utilities and underground structures in your area prior to any excavation or construction project. Whether you are located in Geelong, Melbourne, Ballarat, Gippsland and elsewhere in Victoria, Dig Safe Geelong can provide professional and prompt utility locating service. Contact Dig Safe Geelong today to receive a free quote on our utility locating wet hire rates and our non-destructive digging services. Or if you have any other questions or requests, contact us using the enquiry form and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.