Cable Detection Services
Underground cable strikes are among the most dangerous incidents on a construction site, carrying risk of serious injury in addition to project delay and repair cost. Our cable detection service identifies and traces the exact route and depth of buried cables before excavation, drilling, or piling work begins, giving site teams a clear, marked path to work around.
Live Cable Detection
Live cables — those still carrying an active electrical current — generate an electromagnetic field that our radio detection equipment can pick up directly, allowing us to trace the cable route along the surface without needing to connect to the cable itself.
Dead Cable Detection
De-energized or disconnected cables require a different approach. Where access to the cable is available, a signal can be actively induced onto it using a signal generator and traced from the surface. Where no access point exists, GPR is used to detect the cable or its surrounding duct based on its physical presence in the ground.
HV and LV Cable Detection
High-voltage (HV) transmission and distribution cables typically generate a stronger electromagnetic signature, making detection more straightforward, but the consequences of a strike are far more severe. Low-voltage (LV) cables are detected using the same principles but require finer equipment sensitivity given their weaker signal output.
Fiber Optic Detection
Fiber optic cables carry no electrical current, so direct electromagnetic detection is not possible unless a metallic tracer wire is present in the cable construction. Where no tracer wire exists, we rely on GPR to detect the duct or conduit housing the fiber, supplemented by available utility records.
Radio Detection Equipment
Our radio detection units operate by either passively detecting existing signals (radio and power frequency mode) or actively inducing a traceable signal onto a target cable via direct connection or induction clamp. This dual capability allows tracing of both live and isolated cable runs.
Cable Tracing & Depth Measurement
Every cable trace is logged with both horizontal position and depth at regular intervals along its route, giving excavation crews a complete three-dimensional picture rather than a single surface mark.