Reports
Despite a reporting year with more changes to life than ever before, utility strikes continued to remain an ever-present threat to personal safety.
In addition, there are millions of pounds of physical and environment damages incurred every year.
As there are over 14,000 works taking place every day across the UK1, it is critical that we learn from near misses and strikes to minimise the risk that workers are facing on a daily basis. The utility networks that run over our heads and below our feet extend to over 1.5 million km and are fundamental to daily life.
This report summarises the key findings of 2070 utility strikes across the UK during 2020 based on responses from 43 USAG Members (including 10 with no strikes reported). It highlights what caused the most damages and provides scope and recommendations to:
– Avoid future damages
– Improve the ability to analyse the strike data in future years.
It builds on the previous reports compiled since 2013 and provides commentary against data from previous years. Many issues have been a constant across the periods which strengthens the conclusions made.
The key area of concern is the data collection. Whilst the mean average submission is 48, approximately 1500 strikes (over 70%) came from just three companies. We need the larger operators (contractors) and network operators to play their part to report their data to improve both the volume and certainty of the data.
2020 Utility Strike Damages Report
Despite a reporting year with more changes to life than ever before, utility strikes continued to remain an ever-present threat to personal safety.
In addition, there are millions of pounds of physical and environment damages incurred every year.
As there are over 14,000 works taking place every day across the UK1, it is critical that we learn from near misses and strikes to minimise the risk that workers are facing on a daily basis. The utility networks that run over our heads and below our feet extend to over 1.5 million km and are fundamental to daily life.
This report summarises the key findings of 2070 utility strikes across the UK during 2020 based on responses from 43 USAG Members (including 10 with no strikes reported). It highlights what caused the most damages and provides scope and recommendations to:
– Avoid future damages
– Improve the ability to analyse the strike data in future years.
It builds on the previous reports compiled since 2013 and provides commentary against data from previous years. Many issues have been a constant across the periods which strengthens the conclusions made.
The key area of concern is the data collection. Whilst the mean average submission is 48, approximately 1500 strikes (over 70%) came from just three companies. We need the larger operators (contractors) and network operators to play their part to report their data to improve both the volume and certainty of the data.
2019 Utility Strike Damages Report
This report summarises the key findings of over 2500 utility strikes across the UK during 2019 from 44 participants. It highlights what caused the most damages and provides scope and recommendations to avoid and reduce future damages and improve the ability to analyse the strike data in future years
It builds on the previous reports prepared since 2013 and provides a comparison against the previous year’s data. Many issues were replicated across the periods which strengthens the conclusions made.
Please take the time to download and review the report which highlights some areas of focus not previously seen in earlier reports as technology such as locator/utility survey devices and software advances and methods of some excavations increase in popularity like vacuum excavations.
The next request for strike data submissions from 2020 will be made in Q2 2021. Please ensure your organisations endevours to submit this data in the correct format. Requests for data submissions forms can be made to info@utilitystrikeavoidancegroup.org or can be found here
2017/18 Strike Damages Report
This report summarises the key findings of over 3000 utility strikes across the UK during 2017 & 18 from 34 participants. It highlights what caused the most damages and provides scope and recommendations to:
Avoid future damages
Improve the ability to analyse the strike data in future years.
It builds on the previous reports prepared since 2013 and provides a comparison against the previous year’s data. Many issues were replicated across the periods which strengthens the conclusions made.
There are 8 takeaway points from this report that when implemented will see the number of strikes in future years reduce. All parties involved in damage prevention should strive to ensure that where relevant these actions are reviewed and where possible implemented.
The next request for strike data submissions from 2019 will be made shortly. Please ensure your organisations endevours to submit this data in the correct format. Requests for data submissions forms can be made to info@utilitystrikeavoidancegroup.org or can be found here
2015/16 Strike Damages Report
This report summarises the key findings of over 2700 utility strikes across the UK during 2015 & 16 from 32 participants. It highlights what caused the most damages and provides scope and recommendations to:
Avoid future damages
Improve the ability to analyse the strike data in future years.
It builds on the previous reports prepared in 2013 & 14 and provides a comparison against the previous year’s (2014) data. Many issues were replicated across the periods which strengthens the conclusions made.
This report is produced biennially and the next request for strike data submissions from 2017 and 2018 will be made shortly. Please ensure your organisations endevours to submit this data. Requests for data submissions forms can be made to info@utilitystrikeavoidancegroup.org
2014 Strike Damages Report
This report summarises the key findings of over 2000 utility strikes across the UK during 2014 from 24 participants. It highlights what caused the most damages and provides scope and recommendations to:
1. Avoid future damages
2. Improve the ability to analyse the strike data in future years
It also provides a comparison against the previous year’s (2013) data; it was found that many of the issues were replicated across the two periods which strengthens the conclusions made.
The main conclusions for the causes were:
1. Better preparation in advance of works commencing, through availability of more accurate plans and more
robust location and survey practices was critical
2. Behavioural issues on site during the execution of the works is a key issue and a recommendation for further investigation
What you can do to help the industry and reduce asset strikes
– Distribute this report within your organisation and to your wider industry contacts
– Support the initiative by submitting data for the 2015 and 2016 reports
– Contact us via data@utilitystrikeavoidancegroup. org with any comments
2013 Strike Damages Report
This inaugural report summarises the key findings of over 5800 utility strikes encountered in the UK during 2013 from 38 participants and provides a reliable benchmark on which to work on to avoid the utility strikes encountered across the UK.
The number of excavations across the UK has been previously estimated to be in the region of 4 million per annum across the streetworks network although it is not known on what basis this statistic was based. The number of excavations is not a metric that is usually reported in a uniform manner. It is estimated that the total number of excavations represented by the data collected is in the region of 500,000 for 2013 which is felt to be a good sample size for results and conclusions to be drawn from. The specific industries represented by the sample data cover a wide range, including water, gas, electricity and general construction. The data was collected from 38 industry participants which includes over 5,800 utility strikes.
