upskilling sessions

ALL the following training modules have copyright on them and cannot be reproduced or used in any medium form.

MODULES

the available training sessions are explained below.

Over the years Otrem Engineering have developed a number of training (general and advanced) proactive modules on safe digging.

These sessions are put together incorporating 25+ years’ experience in the industry. Some of the sessions are directly out of the general learning of closed off legal cases, that Otrem Engineering had involvement in.

All case studies are general in nature and no specific details are ever revealed.

Each module has a learning quiz attached to it and the attendees get a certificate upon completion of their module.

The learning in all the training are extracted from incidents and damages spanning back to 1999, this experience is from:

Onsite investigation of damages
International engagements
Expert witness reports
Court cases involvement & attendance
Previous employment at the One Call service
Delivery of thousands of presentations (face to face and online)
Attendance to hundreds of forums, conferences and field shows
Previous employment at Telstra
Ongoing engagement with asset owners and industry

If you would like to arrange a specific session just for your staff please contact us via email at [email protected] and we will call you to discuss:

customise modules for best outcome
budgets for training
location (online or face to face) and
time availability.

There are a number of set time training modules of awareness sessions that are available, please scroll below.

Registration to all set date delivery sessions (online only), please click on this link.

Latest Presentations

THE BALANCED APPROACH

bASED ON fAIRNESS

A healthy, functioning and growing society relies on the continuous upgrade and development of its infrastructure.

It is inevitable that during the forward movement of progress (to infrastructure) that existing services will be impacted.

This impact must be counteracted in such a way that it has a balanced approach, with fairness built into the solution between the impactor and the asset owner.

This presentation covers the key elements that constitutes a balanced and fair solution based on the (importance, existence, protection, engagement, co-ordination, standards and funding) impacts imposed by a proposed project.

Kicking Goals

Not playing by the rules

This session is about the unauthorised works that are undertaken on, in, around and to existing assets, without knowledge of the asset owner. It focuses on what happens when we do not play by the rules and end up kicking goals in the wrong net.

A highly charged presentation, bringing to light the wrong doings of the industry and the consequences of the unauthorised works exposure.

Coming soon

MAKING THE RUN

You may have heard many stories on how damagers have tried to hide their tracks after they damaged a service. This session goes through how damages have been discovered, after the evidence onsite has been tampered with by the damager. Coming soon.

Reaping and Tearing

Reaping through the earth – in the process tearing through critical services. Leaving behind a trail of destruction in the name of progress and cost cutting. This session concentrates on the false thinking that the service you are installing, is more important than the services damaged in the process. Coming soon.

Sharing the load

Damages to existing services occurs by various forces that are projected directly or indirectly on them.

The most sophisticated damages, are the type when the Maximum Permissible Loading forces are exceeded and projected on the Asset through the subgrade / subbase (indirect Damage).

These forces are strong enough to cause material fatigue to such a degree were damage occurs instantaneously or delayed.

This session concentrates on these type of forces and the damages to services they inflict, especially the delayed effect. Coming Soon

Complex Networks

Complex Networks are living in and servicing our modern-day society.

We rely heavily on functioning services to be able to carry on with modern day living.

In our premises where services do exist, we expect taps to have running (hot) water, lights to turn on, phones to ring, wastewater and storm water to leave or premises, heating and cooling for our comfort and connectivity with the entire world!

Then why are so many third-party damages happening to these critical complex networks, that impact our societies daily?

This presentation is about avoiding the damages that bring such impacts to our society.

Topics of discussion:

 Effectiveness of awareness instruments
 Equipped with the right tools and knowledge
 Encouraging good behaviour
 Enforcing approved documented procedures
 Entitlement of existence and protection
 Easement and safety zone acceptance
 Environmentally conscience

Beating the odds

This presentation is about the human behaviour when calculating the risks of damage around any utility’s services.

It explores the thinking of the industry on how one can beat the odds of a damage, at the different stages of a life of the project.

The findings are based on numerous damage investigations and expert reports on all damages.

Topics of discussion:

Wrong Design Risk Calculations
Assumptions
Ignorance
Lack of Knowledge of assets
Disrespect
Time / Cost Restraints

Advanced Presentations

Networks Awareness

The Networks Awareness session covers the general architecture of the assets that provide services to our modern day society.

Topics of discussion:

Avoiding damage to underground and above-ground assets
Asset owners information response
Onsite paper work requirements
The Duty of care for planning
Your obligations when working near vital assets
The make and type of the network voids.

plan Awareness

The Plan Awareness presentation is an interactive session, designed in understanding:

Various categories of assets & their owners in Australia
The types of plans sent to the industry
Information on plans
Format of plans (pdf or dwg)
Supporting material that comes with the plans
The importance of engagement
Limitation of asset plans
Requirements of the duty of care with reference to planning

DUty of care (6Ps)

The Duty of Care is one of the critical pillars in the damage (avoidance and prevention) of assets. It is the basic building block an expert reports on incidents.

This 2 hour presentation solely focusing on the 6Ps and how they should be implemented in the scope of planning, designing and actual physical work onsite.

Plan
Prepare
Pothole
Protect
Proceed
Plot

Damage investigation

The damage investigation session covers when you are investigated for a strike on an asset and how to investigate a damaged asset.

Underground assets strikes occur on a daily basis across Australia. The need to properly investigate the incident in a timely manner is critical for future damage prevention, safety purposes and cost recovery

This 2 hours seminar covers the basics requirements on a damaged site, which include:

Focus on the breach of the duty of care that resulted in the underground strike
The processes and procedures involved in locating and protecting the underground assets before a damage
The breaches of the duty of Care
Working Safely once an underground strike occurs
Involvement of the staff onsite during a damage investigation
Three main pillars of underground damage investigation that is common to all damage locations.

Directors of Impact

This awareness session is about the role professionals play (knowingly or unknowingly) in directing a change on or near existing assets, without approval or knowledge by the asset owners, that eventually causes an impact on these services.

The session goes through a number of current legal cases in explaining the impacts we all have on services. There have been a number of asset damages in the media recently, those will be discussed with reference to the consequences and reputational damage.

There will be multiple visual actual impacts shown and discussed at this session. This session is designed for online and face to face training. The main topics to be covered in this session are:

Who are the Directors of Impact
Triggers of Impact that causes change
What assets are impacted /modified
Discovery of unauthorised impact
Rectification Costs
Consequences / Liability
Reputational Damage

notifications on plans

Notifications on Plans (with reference to the maze of critical services) focusing on the designing profession.

This presentation extracts the learning from the recent engagements with various legal claims on damaged critical services.

There have been some serious errors written or referenced on plans (with reference to services) that have led to these damages.

These plans referred to are produced by the following professions: Architects / Surveyors / Draftsmen / Engineers Town Planners / Building Designers / Trades / Contractors and Locators.

Presentation will concentrate on:

The types of notifications that are put on plans
The positives and negatives
Recommendations
Notification Groups that contribute to services strike (DASH)
Chain of command with reference to due diligence
Inclusions References
Examples of wrong notifications
Case studies – damage to critical services

Art of Engagement

The Art of Engagement session concentrates on the interaction between your profession and asset owners, that are potentially impacted by your proposed works.

The Topics covered are:

Relationships
Cycle of Interaction
The Proposals
Common Respect
General Agreements
Terms and Conditions
Documentation

The importance of been able to proof you had a relationship with the asset owners at your site, becomes one of the main focus in a legal case.

This session aims at given you the tools to properly document and engage with the asset owners.

Honesty

The pinnacle of incident reports

Honesty -(the pinnacle of incident reports) session concentrates on the reporting of incidents that occur onsite. This reporting is undertaken by the staff that witnessed and / or supervised the site at which the incident occurred.

The Topics covered are:

Accuracy and honesty of reporting
Currency of reports
Factual elements
Traps of reporting
Structure of reports
Audience of the reports
Legality of reporting
Documentation inclusions
Recommendations

This session will concentrates on the bad and misleading reports that have been written after a damage that has occurred on a live service. It will give recommendations on the basic inclusion of information in these reports.

transferring knowledge

This session is about how we share information and Knowledge gathered from the owners (of existing and known services) to help prevent damage strike.

The various aspects of knowledge gather will be discussed. The main points will include:

Site meetings outcomes
Plans and diagrams
Instructions and Restrictions
Potential danger
Significance of assets
Awareness of critical assets
Outcomes of interaction with asset owners
Site History of services

Untruly North

The chaotic positioning of services

This session is about how over the years the assets have been positioned (or have ended up) in the location they are.

Have you ever wondered why are services where they are?

Do services have right of way?

This session goes through the history of services and the roll out assets across the years as a result of:

Population increase
Changes in land usage
Technological advances
Changing standards
Legal requirements
Competing footpath / road allocations
Installation practices
Competition / Deregulations
Social acceptance

Dancing with Danger

This session concentrates on the safety aspects of both buried and aboveground services. It reveals the hidden dangers of uncontrolled interaction with services.

The topics that will be covered are:

Services can strike back
Hidden Dangers
Safety Approach zones
Uncontrolled Interaction
Consequences
Community Impacts
Case studies

mother of All damages

This session is concentrated on telecommunication in Australia.

Hiding the Unforgotten

This session concentrates on the damages that are caused to services networks (knowingly or unknowingly) that are not reported to the asset owners. Some of these damages are deliberately hidden at the time of impact. Eventually the hidden damage to these services are found (at a later time) and are rectified at the expense of the impactor.