Who we are and what we do
Morrison Utility Services is a leading service provider within the electricity, gas, telecommunications and water sectors. Our business is centred on the provision, replacement, repair and maintenance of utility network infrastructure (water and gas pipes, electric & telecommunication cables, water, electricity and gas meters, mobile phone masts and associated equipment, telephone kiosks, and electric substations), which our clients (the UK and Ireland's utility companies) own and utilise to deliver water, electricity, gas and telecommunications to you.
Across the UK and Ireland, each individual property, whether commercial, domestic or industrial, has its own water, electricity, gas, and telecommunications supply. In order to achieve this, there is a huge distribution and supply network.
Although the UK and Ireland has a well developed utility network, there are times when it is necessary to upgrade ageing infrastructure or provide new infrastructure to support new development and growing demand.
We work very closely with our clients - local, county and highway authorities - to try to ensure that any works are carried out with as little disruption as possible to the local community. We also feel that it is important to involve the local community wherever possible to provide relevant information on key projects, listen to queries and concerns and work together to plan associated works to cause as little disruption as possible. In this way, we are able to identify potential issues and overcome them before they arise. Unfortunately there will always be an element of disruption, but this is a short-term inconvenience for long-term gain.
On the following pages, we try to give you a picture of the work we do for the utility companies, why this is necessary and potential issues that may arise as a direct result from the works.
Within the gas and water industries, some of the pipe that was laid many years ago was made from iron. Due to being underground, this has corroded over time and is now the cause of potential leaks and therefore possible danger (especially with gas pipes).
As a result of this, the Regulators have insisted that iron gas pipes are replaced with polyethylene (yellow plastic) pipes. These plastic pipes are more flexible, do not corrode and will make sure you continue to have a safe and reliable gas supply for many years to come.
Where we are replacing gas pipes, there is a requirement to replace the supply pipes to individual properties as well as the mains pipes. This means we will have to disconnect your supply for a period of time - normally this can be disconnected and reconnected with the new pipes within a day. Prior to this work commencing, you will receive a letter from us and/or your local supplier providing you with details of the work, how long this should be going on for, and whether we require access to your property to turn off the gas and any subsequent relight.
Old water mains and service connections to houses are also being replaced with blue polyethylene pipe, this will maintain the security of your supply, improve water quality and reduce leakage levels.
Health and Safety is our licence to operate. On each job, we are required to ensure that all excavations have suitable barriers around them. This is to ensure that the site remains safe for the public as well as our employees. Depending on the location of the asset being worked on, we may have to close part of a road or pavement. We work very closely with the Highways Authority to try and keep disruption to a minimum and keep traffic flowing where possible, but all closures or diversions take place with the safety of everyone involved at the forefront of our operations.
We will carry out reinstatement once we have finished the job. This is carried out either by ourselves or by one of our approved subcontractors and takes place once our main work is complete. In some instances it may be necessary to lay a temporary surface to make the area safe prior to permanent reinstatement. We always aim to reinstate a surface to the same standard it was in before we arrived. Therefore, if you have special materials on your property, we will do our best to ensure the same material is reinstated - once our subcontractors and we have left, there should be as little evidence of anyone having been there as possible and all rubbish and surplus materials removed.
We are contracted by some of our clients to run meter installation programmes for domestic and commercial premises. Prior to any work being carried out, you will receive a letter from your local water, gas or electric supplier and/or us informing you of the work that has to be carried out and the reasons for this work. Should we need access to your property, this will also be made clear in the letter and contact details provided. If there are any queries that are not answered in your letter, please feel free to contact us and we will be delighted to help you out.
Generally speaking, any work we do for our clients on substations takes place on their own private land. This type of work therefore has a negligible effect on the local community. However, in order to preserve the health and safety of the community, all work takes place within secured fencing. New substations are built to cope with the increase in demand for electricity across the country. Due to the way in which these are built, you will not experience any power cuts as the switch over from an old substation to a new one can be done without having to turn off any customers' electricity supply.
On a number of our contracts, we are obliged to carry out smaller works for our clients, often at very short notice. This could include digging a hole in the public highway or footpath for an emergency repair. If there is a power cut or leak, we may need to dig a hole to expose an electric cable, water or gas pipe for repair. Where local authorities are erecting new street furniture (bus shelters, advertising boards, street lights, etc), there is a need to dig an excavation to connect the new apparatus to the network; new housing developments and business parks need power and therefore excavations need to be dug. More often now, the overhead electric lines that you see around the country are being placed underground. This means we need to dig a long trench to install the new cables.
Morrison Utility Services employs over 1600 mobile operatives. The term "mobile operative" means that they do not have a fixed work location, but work at any required location. Many of these employees will be provided with a Morrison vehicle, which they use to carry out their day job. A direct result of this is that these operatives need to bring their vans home with them at the end of each day and park this at home. We appreciate that in some places parking can be very difficult at the best of times, but all our employees are asked to park considerately and within the law. Should you have a specific query regarding one of our vehicles, please contact us via the feedback form on the website, stating the registration or identification number of the vehicle in question and its location.
We are currently contracted by eircom in Ireland to undertake a number of activities relating to their telephone and internet infrastructure. There are currently two contracts the largest being a "network installation and uplift" contract covering the southern half of the country. Here we are contracted to carry out pole replacement, underground and overhead cabling, jointing, fibre optic and civil works. eircom own 1.5 million telegraph poles and each year these poles are tested for a number of operational reasons. 10 per cent of these tested are checked for defects. If the poles do indeed have a defect, they are labelled as such and noted for a replacement. In 2007 alone, the Morrison Utility Services team replaced 10,000 poles across Ireland. For the past seven years we have been carrying out payphone maintenance throughout the provinces, which includes cash collection, cleaning, and general maintenance. This part of the contract now covers all eircom's 5,500 payphones and 200 Internet terminals.
We also work for BT Openreach throughout the UK both in exchanges and on the telecommunication network.
Due to the huge number of utility services located within the roads and pavements, it often becomes necessary and helpful to mark and colour code as many of these utilities on the surface prior to excavating. This is done by reading utility plans and using a spray paint to show the mapped location of each service. By doing this, the excavation team will have additional knowledge as to the location of utilities within the ground and can be aware of what they are likely to find under the surface.
