The utility search pack: a horror anthology

Every scheme has a moment where the excitement drains out of the room. For us, it's when the utility search pack arrives.

It turns up as a PDF the size of a small moon. Inside are plans from every gas, water, electric and telecoms company that might have something under your road. Some are crisp and helpful. Some are a photocopy of a fax of a drawing from 1974. One is always upside down.

Then the fun starts. We overlay the lot onto the design and watch the new junction disappear under a plate of spaghetti. There's a fibre duct exactly where the kerb line wants to go. There's a high-pressure gas main running diagonally through the bellmouth. And there's always one line that just says "abandoned?", question mark included, like a ghost story.

A few lessons we've picked up:

• Get the search done early. Diversions can be the priciest line in the whole budget, and the slowest.
• Stat plans are a guide, not a promise. "Approximately here" can mean a metre either way, or the other side of the road.
• Trial holes beat guesswork. A day with a digger is cheap compared with a surprise on site.
• Design around it where you can. Shifting a kerb line costs far less than moving a gas main.

None of this is glamorous, but it's the difference between a scheme that gets built and one that stalls with a big hole in the road.

If you've got a site and want to know what's lurking underneath before it bites, give us a shout.