Opening Street Lamp Covers (UK)

[Steve2021]

Apologies from a newbie if this is in the wrong place.

A contractor is going to trace all underground utilities in an area, including electrical cabling to street lamps. He is proposing to open the covers on a number of working street lamps to better transmit a signal that can be traced by his equipment. They may be clamping on to something inside the cover.

While it might be that it's the best way of tracing the cabling, it also sounds as though it's a) unsafe and b) not what the local council would allow, if they were aware and c) potentially illegal. The contractor's staff are not electricians. When queried on this practice, they said an alternative would be to wedge a screwdriver into the crack between the cover and lampost and clamp on to that. My gut feel is that placing the genny near the base of said streetlamp should be enough, but I'm not a location of utils expert!

Does this sound like normal practice? I have looked at PAS 128 but it doesn't go into how the tracing is done in enough detail. I can't find a "best practice" guide (but maybe I'm looking in the wrong place), and the HSE website similarly lacks detail.

Any help, pointers, etc. gratefully received.

Steve

 

[snowhead]

What relationship / connection do you have to the Contractor?

It appears this work is probably in connection with road alterations as it seems to suggest all utilities, so it's most likely that the contractor is experienced in utility tracing and thier systems of work are probably industry standard and / or approved by the Local Authority or their agents.

With the cover removed on a lampost or any other street furniture there would not normally be anything exposed posing a danger to anyone.