# What to check before you dig: underground utilities

Published: 2026-09-16

**In short:** Identifying underground utilities before excavation is the responsibility of the client, not of the company carrying out the work. Clearances are requested from the network owners — water, gas, electricity, telecommunications — and in areas with reported utilities the digging is done by hand, not by machine.

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It is the chapter nobody wants to read until something gets broken. Then it becomes the most expensive chapter of the job.

## Who is responsible

**The client**, meaning the landowner or the investor. The company carrying out the excavation has no way of knowing what is buried in the ground unless it is told.

A good operator asks before starting the machine and refuses to dig blind in risky areas. But the responsibility for obtaining the information stays with the client.

## What can be found in the ground

- **gas pipes** — the most dangerous, with a risk of explosion
- **power cables** — risk of electrocution and of cutting off the power supply in the area
- **water and sewer pipes**
- **telecommunications and fibre optic cables** — not dangerous, but interrupting them costs a fortune
- **district heating networks**
- **old foundations, abandoned septic tanks, filled-in wells**

## How they are identified

**Clearances from the network owners.** They are requested from each operator that has networks in the area. The reply indicates whether there are routes on the land and where they run.

**Site plans** from the planning documentation, if they exist.

**Clues on the ground:** inspection chambers, covers, markers, valves, poles, meters. A route can sometimes be worked out by looking at where it goes in and where it comes out.

**Detection with equipment**, for cases where the documentation is missing or unclear.

## The golden rule during the work

In areas with reported utilities, **the digging is done by hand**, not with the machine. You work with a shovel until the pipe or cable is visually identified, then continue mechanically from a safe distance.

It is slower and costs more. But it costs infinitely less than a broken gas pipe.

## What to do if something unexpected turns up

1. **Stop digging immediately** in that area.
2. **Do not touch it**, and do not try to move or repair it.
3. **Notify** the owner of the network.
4. For gas: move everyone away from the area and urgently notify the distribution operator. No smoking, no starting engines and no operating switches nearby.
5. Resume the work only once the issue has been resolved.

## What this means for the schedule

Obtaining clearances takes time. Start the process a few weeks before the date on which you want the excavation to begin, not two days before.

A booked machine that cannot start because a clearance is missing is a day paid for nothing.

## What we do

We dig with an operator, and our operators ask about utilities beforehand and work carefully in reported areas. But the clearances and the information about what is in the ground come from the client — and if they do not have them, we tell them before we start, not afterwards.

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## Contact

Phone: +40 729 553 449
Contact form: https://inchiriez-utilaje.ro/en/contact/
Article: https://inchiriez-utilaje.ro/en/blog/underground-utilities-before-digging/
Romanian version: https://inchiriez-utilaje.ro/blog/retele-subterane-inainte-de-sapatura/