Underground understanding

The Highways Term Maintenance Association (HTMA) and the HSE’s Working Well Together (WWT) campaign have collaborated to produce a DVD that addresses general attitudes and behaviours to digging safely around utility infrastructures.

Called Breaking new ground, the DVD is designed to be used both as a tool to raise awareness of the importance of responsible digging and as a training tool for designers, clients, management, engineers, and supervisors and operatives.

The DVD is designed in two parts. The first part raises awareness of the proliferation of underground services and the dangers of striking them. Intended to support a company’s existing training programme, the DVD aims to influence a more positive attitude and a shift in behaviour. To this end, interviews are shown with victims of service strikes, who recount their personal experiences and the impact these incidents have had on their lives. 

The second part is designed to address the more practical issues associated with safe digging. It takes a modular approach, which falls into three key subject areas:

1.    Planning – aimed particularly at clients, designers and utility companies;
2.    Locating underground services – aimed at management, engineers and utility companies; and
3.    Safe digging practice – aimed at supervisors, operatives and sub-contractors.

Breaking new ground is accompanied by a comprehensive study resource, which offers cues for discussion during training sessions. It can be purchased, or viewed, at http://safetydvd.htma.co.uk