Operate Smart, Operate Safely

Overhead and Underground Safety Practices

Utility contacts can be costly—and deadly. Implementing the simple steps outlined below can help you and your crew work safely around electric utilities.

Look Up and Live

• Examine the site for overhead lines, especially those that may be blocked from view.
• Mark a safety boundary to keep workers and equipment a safe distance from power lines. Consult Westar Energy or www.osha.gov for specific clearance requirements.
• Use a spotter whose only job is to watch your equipment and make sure you maintain the mandatory clearances.
• Carry long equipment parallel to the ground until you’re ready to use it. Always stay the required distance away from power lines.

Dig Safely

• Call 811 well in advance if your project involves digging, blasting, boring, trenching, drilling, grading, or excavating.
• Make sure that you and your coworkers can read utility locator markings.
• Adhere to mandatory tolerance zones and do not use any power-digging equipment within this zone.
• Use proper hand-digging tools and techniques to safely verify the depth of buried utilities.

Would You Like to Know More?

Additional digging and overhead guidelines, case studies, instructional videos, and training tools can all be found, at no charge to you, on Westar Energy’s e-SMARTworkers website.

For more contractor safety information,
visit westarsafety.com/contractors.

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