On site in Sydney and across NSW
What to expect.
A locate starts before the crew leaves the office. We lodge the Before You Dig Australia enquiry, pull the asset owner plans for power, gas, water, sewer, stormwater and telecommunications, and read them against the site. Plans in Sydney are often decades old and drawn from the kerb line, so they are a starting point, never the answer. On site the locator traces each conductive service with an electromagnetic transmitter and receiver, applies ground penetrating radar for non-conductive pipes, conduits and anything the records missed, and marks the ground in the standard colours: red for power, yellow for gas, blue for water, green for sewer and stormwater, white for communications.
What you get is more than paint. Every marked asset is given a quality level under AS 5488-2022. QL-D means the position came from records alone, QL-C adds surface features, QL-B is a detected position with an indicated depth, and QL-A is a position proven by non-destructive excavation. The quality level is written on the mark-out plan and in the report, so your engineer, your excavator operator and your safety officer all know how much to trust each line.
Ground conditions change the method. Sydney sandstone and the sandy soils of the coast let GPR see well below a metre; the reactive clays of the Cumberland Plain soak up the radar signal, so there we lean on electromagnetic tracing, sondes pushed through the pipe and potholing where the design needs certainty. Congested CBD footpaths, rail corridors under Transport for NSW rules and Sydney Water trunk mains each come with their own permits and clearances, and our locators hold the G71 and G73 accreditations those sites require.
