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#1 Posted : 08 November 2006 14:34:00(UTC)
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Posted By Lee Mac Hi All, The company I work for have recently bought a site with several Pylons contained within it- they are carrying 33kv cables. There are other 11kv cables being carried by telegraph poles. I rang the NIE (electrical board), I was advised to keep a safe distance of 6.1 metres by their H&S contact, however, the engineer that came out today, told me that this wasn't the recommended safe distance and advised a distance of a 4.6 metre clearance. The engineer also advised that these cables are expected to be carrying 110kv by the start of 2007. He advises that these distances still apply. As I am sure you can all appreciate this leaves me in a bit of a quandary and I don't have a copy of the HSE guidance note. Can anyone who has please advise. Cheers, Lee
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#2 Posted : 08 November 2006 14:43:00(UTC)
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Posted By Alison WR overhead power lines are on the electricity page of HSE's website. The agriculture guidance note, with handy diagram, is http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/ais8.pdf Alison
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#3 Posted : 08 November 2006 15:08:00(UTC)
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Posted By Lee Mac Cheers Alison, Much Appreciated. Now I am looking for a bit of clarification, are the guidlines recommended by the HSE for Agriculture exact to those in guidance note 6- specific to construction GS6 Cheers, Lee
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#4 Posted : 08 November 2006 16:01:00(UTC)
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Posted By Pat Hannaway Hi Lee, The advice in GS6 is that "liaison between the persons responsible for the work and the owner(s) of the lines should be continued until the work has been completed." I work for an organisation (in Northern Ireland) that regularly undertakes construction work below / adjacent to N.I.E. overhead power lines. I have always found them to be very helpful, and we take their advice on working close to any of their power lines, irrespective of what "general" guidance is given in GS6 . They are as keen as anyone else to ensure that there are no accidental "strikes". The advice given in GS6 for agricultural work near overhead powerlines, is different, and of a lesser standard, than that for construction work at similar locations e.g. farmers do not have to erect "goal posts" every time they drive a tractor below an overhead line that may be within the 4.6m exclusion zone. I would advise you to keep in regular contact with N.I.E. Regards, Pat H
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#5 Posted : 09 November 2006 18:34:00(UTC)
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Posted By Ken Taylor It's in the IEE literature somewhere but you could give their technical people a ring. Determining factors include whether the route beneath is: pedestrian only; off-road vehicle access; on-road vehicle access; used by abnormal height vehicles or plant; etc. The 6.1m sounds good for an area where normal vehicles may pass beneath whilst the lower figure may well be OK for pedestrian areas - but do check for the latest guidance.
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#6 Posted : 08 February 2007 15:03:00(UTC)
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Posted By RoryK I too work in NI and have an almost daily contact with NIE. I find them difficult to work with as they will not provide a markup service (other utility providers have no problem doing this). All you get is a map with a disclaimer stating that its a general guide and there is no warranty to its correctness. Not very reassuring giving that any incident with electricity could be life threatening. Even then these "approximate" maps are wildly inaccurate (with cables up to 50 metres away from the suggested location) or just plain wrong - with underground services marked as overhead. With this in mind it is not a surprise that I have near daily contact with NIE - getting them to repair something that didn't even exist on the map and that the CAT didn't pick up.
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#7 Posted : 08 February 2007 23:49:00(UTC)
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Posted By Ken Taylor Reminds me of my early local authority days when, as a highway authority, we would get much the same response.
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