Network locating and cable identification in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland as well as parts of Upper Austria and Styria

Key facts at a glance

For you as a business

In plants, properties and utility networks the as-built documentation is rarely complete. We close the gaps section by section: single routes, critical crossings, one cable before it is cut. For briefing outside contractors this provides a written basis instead of a verbal account – whoever briefs holds a plan in their hand, not the memory of a colleague.

Every section is documented in its own right and thus stays findable later without searching. Every located point is surveyed as we go. If the routes are to go permanently into the geographic information system, the survey passes into a register recording and the points are handed over in your data model.

How the job runs

1. Enquiry and scoping. We can be reached on +43 (0) 2252 53169, Monday to Thursday 8:00–16:30 and Friday 8:00–12:00, otherwise in writing to office@cft.at. We scope the section, clarify existing plan documents, access to manholes, distribution boards and switchgear, and the question of whether and when circuits are isolated.

2. Recording on site. We walk the section and collect the points where a signal can be applied: manhole, distribution board, hydrant, pipe end. Which of them carries decides the coupling – clamped on directly, inductively, via the signal clamp or, if none of that is possible, via an inserted sonde.

3. Tracing, identifying and marking. The route is walked metre by metre, cross-surveyed and marked; where it crosses another or a branch leads away, we set a separate mark. Depth readings are added as far as the method yields them. If the trench is open, identification follows: the cable in question is unambiguously assigned within the bundle and tagged, so no doubt remains at the cutting point.

4. Handover. You receive the sketch, the photographic report and the surveyed points as files. Where a finding is unambiguous, it says so; where it is not, that is in there too. Handover goes to your plant engineering, the executing cable fitter or the network operator.

Equipment and methods

Electromagnetic pipe and cable locating

An alternating-current signal goes onto the cable – clamped on directly, inductively or via the signal clamp, depending on what the access point yields. The receiver picks up the magnetic field at the surface and traces the route. A metallic conductor must be present. In densely packed routes, as they occur on industrial sites and in local network sections, the signal couples onto the neighbouring lines – which cable in the bundle is the one in question is then only settled by identification in the open trench.

Sonde location

If the metallic conductor is missing, a battery-powered transmitting sonde rides along – on the pushrod camera or on rods. It transmits from one point, and this point can be determined precisely at the surface, including its depth. This gives non-metallic pipes in the section a traceable route too. The precondition is an opening through which the sonde can be inserted.

Acoustic pipe locating

Some pipes give themselves away through sound – through the noise they generate themselves, or through one that is imposed on them. The ground microphone searches the surface for the maximum; that is where the pipe runs. This is the route when nothing couples electromagnetically. On operational areas and along streets, traffic noise sets the method a hard limit, as does a pipe material that swallows the sound.

Cable identification in trench and cable tray

If several cables lie side by side in the open trench, no locating plan answers the decisive question: which one is it? In cable identification a signal is applied and the single cable in the bundle is unambiguously identified before anyone cuts. The same applies on the cable tray, where assignment lists and labels rarely still hold after years.

Ground penetrating radar

For the areal search without a coupling point we use ground penetrating radar. It is the route to non-metallic pipes without access and without tracer wire, and the fallback where no signal can be applied.

Surveying with GPS and total station

Every located point is surveyed – with GPS in the open, with the total station where hall walls, vegetation or superstructures cut off satellite reception. This runs as standard and is not an extra order: only so does the route survive the next rain, and only so does your records management have something to connect to.

Costs and effort

A flat rate would hit nothing here: section length, number and occupancy of the routes, accessibility, methods and the scope of the survey each weigh differently. What the job costs we agree beforehand, as soon as the section to be recorded is fixed.

Re-measurement is included in the scope; who pays for it depends on the finding. If the line comes out somewhere other than marked when opening up, we return and re-measure free of charge. If the marking was right and the digging was next to it or too shallow, we charge for the call-out – a measuring error by CFT is then not present. We hold to this equally for cable locating, pipe locating and cable fault location.

Frequently asked questions