Alert 12 – 05 Near Miss – Track Hoe Contacts 5 KV Power Cable
WHAT HAPPENED:
During the mechanical excavation of two 6” pipelines and a power cable, a 5 KV power cable tightened when contact was made with the track hoe bucket. The power cable was discovered through hydro excavation and inspection of the survey drawings indicated that the power cable followed a path adjacent to the pipeline. The contact location was determined to be outside of two foot (2’) of the path of the pipeline underneath the backfill. After being contacted with the bucket of the track hoe, the cable shorted when manually moved by the ground disturbance supervisor.