Birmingham major city centre street flooded due to third party damage to 9 inch water main. Main city library and businesses closed for the day. In 2016 the university of Birmingham published a study that concluded that for every £1000 of direct costs to repair the damage there are £29,000 of indirect costs such as loss of business, and traffic disruption. In the case of this incident in a main street full of restaurants and bars the value is likely to be much higher. 

The latest newsletter is now available by clicking on the below image. You can sign up to receive new by email here

USAG is a proud supporter of the 2019 Utility Week Health, Safety and Wellbeing Conference taking place on 27 November 2019 in Birmingham.  
Join 130+ health, safety and wellbeing professionals from the UK’s largest utilities to explore how to successfully build a clear, strong and effective health and safety culture, also debate whether enough is being done to protect the mental health of the workforce.
Speakers from USAG and our members Thames Water, E.ON, Northern Gas Networks, Southern Water, Skanska, Mace and more will get to grips with what can be learnt from outside the industry, how to attract the next generation to health and safety, and explore the opportunities of technology and innovation in reducing incidents.

As a supporter, we can offer our members a preferential rate to attend – to view full details and book, visit https://event.utilityweek.co.uk/hs/ and quote promo code USAG15 to get 15% off your place.

The Health and Safety Executive has released UK workplace fatality figures for 2018/19. In the construction sector this amounted to 30 fatalities out of a total of 147. Whilst this is the lowest annual number on record for the sector it does still account for a large proportion of the total and is little comfort to the family and friends of those that lost their lives at work.

No stats currently available for fatalities directly due to damage to utilities, there were 4 due to contact with electricity and a further 5 from exposure to an explosion. Working and excavating around utilities continues to be a key risk in the construction sector so contractors, utilities and service providers continue to work together within USAG to promote safe digging practices. You can read the full report on the HSE website by clicking below.

This is the final call for strike data from the years 2017 and 2018 for the next strike damages report. The report will highlight key areas of industry focus to reduce life threatening and inconvenient incidents of damage. If you have signed up to the safe dig charter it is a requirement to provide this for reporting purposes.

Please take the time and effort to supply this data to us with urgency. If you have not received a reminder email from USAG data and reporting group you can download the forms here https://www.utilitystrikeavoidancegroup.org/strike-process-and-record-forms.html or email data@utilitystrikeavoidancegroup.org

We are pleased to begin a regular newsletter updating all of our members and those that have registered an interest in the newsgroup with the latest developments and news from the group and wider industry. Click on the below image to display the newsletter in a new window.

You can sign up to receive news by email by clicking here

Thank you for your commitment to ensure the highest standards of safety and best practice when carrying out essential work to avoid utility strikes. As part of this drive, USAG produces an Annual Report on Utility Strikes to highlight trends in asset damage throughout the UK; a concept based on international best practice. The drivers for this are to help all stakeholders improve by recognising best practice, reduce damages and delays and, most importantly, increase the safety of people working near utilities. Data collection templates and guidance can be found here. All data will be anonymised and a Non-Disclosure Agreement is available upon request. 

We thank you in advance for your help; the deadline date for return of 2017 & 2018 information is 07 June 2019.  Your efforts to keep to this deadline are appreciated as it will enable the finalised reports for both 2017 and 2018 to be compiled and made available in the coming months for the good of the whole industry. Should you have any questions please email Richard Broome, Head of Data and Reporting Group.

One of our large utility construction and maintenance contractor members Amey has produced a handy video training guide to their locating services process. They are happy to share this guide with the rest of USAG and you can view the video on their youtube channel by clicking below.