Utility Locating and Daylighting

No. A locate identifies the indicated horizontal position of member-owned infrastructure, but it does not physically prove depth, outside diameter, material, or exact alignment at a crossing. Harrowgate daylights the target where the design or excavation needs three-dimensional certainty, while keeping the locate package and ground markings current.

Not necessarily. Infrastructure inside an industrial plant, commercial campus, yard, or development parcel may be privately owned and absent from public locate responses. Harrowgate scopes a private-site investigation using records, site evidence, electronic tracing, radar where suitable, and daylighting so unregistered power, communications, fire, process, and drainage lines are addressed.

No. Ontario guidance treats hydrovac daylighting as excavation. Valid locates and the required responses must be in place before soil removal begins. Harrowgate checks the paperwork against the surface marks and site evidence, then resolves missing, expired, or conflicting responses before positioning the unit and opening a test hole.

We record the test-hole location, date, target identity, visible material, apparent diameter, utility direction, crown or other specified elevation, measurement reference, surface condition, photographs, and locate reference. Where the project supplies survey control, the exposure can be tied to that datum so engineers can compare it directly with the proposed profile.

Radar is useful when a buried feature is non-conductive, when tracer wire is unavailable, or when a broader subsurface sweep is required. Performance depends on soil conductivity, moisture, reinforcement, depth, target size, and surface access. Harrowgate treats radar responses as interpreted evidence and uses targeted exposure for final confirmation.

The opening must expose enough of the target to identify both edges, direction, condition, and the specified measurement point without removing unnecessary support. Size changes with depth, congestion, soil, asset diameter, inspection needs, and whether a connection follows. Harrowgate plans each hole around the information and safe access the project actually requires.

After documentation or inspection, Harrowgate places specified backfill around the asset without voids or impact, compacts subsequent lifts, and reinstates the surface to the contract or road authority detail. Road openings can require engineered fill, granular base, temporary asphalt, and final paving. Slurry is contained and taken to an approved receiving location.