An underground utility company is helping to reduce service strikes in the construction sector after Willmott Dixon signed up to deliver a series of its training courses.

Underground utilities experts LTU provides training to a wide range of manufacturers, contractors and equipment end-users. They teamed up with Willmott Dixon, the UK's second largest privately-owned capital works, regeneration and support services company, to create a package of specialist underground utilities awareness courses.

David Housley, Principal Health, Safety & Environmental Manager with Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd, said: "The LTU training courses appealed to us because we could have input into the content and objectives of the course and ensure they were geared towards our business needs.

"LTU has an excellent reputation for providing specialist awareness and training in the area of utilities, the training is being rolled out across our division to help ensure that our management teams have the right understanding in this area of construction with a view to help reduce service strikes and prevent injury."


Willmott Dixon is the latest in a line of leading companies in the construction sector, including Bardons Aggregates, to sign up for LTU training.

Pete Bevils, Managing Director of LTU, believes that allowing companies to have input into their training courses is the best way to ensure they get what they need out of it.

He said: "We deliver training in a range of settings and can tailor our sessions to different staff members whether they work on-site or not. The overall objective is to raise awareness of the measures that need to be taken before any digging work takes place and how we get there can vary from company to company.

"Badly trained site staff are one of the main causes of utility strikes and we’re keen to raise the professionalism of the sector through our training."

In addition to bespoke training, LTU offers a range of courses which have been designed by industry practitioners to improve awareness of how to avoid damaging buried utilities and operate in a safe, efficient and more cost effective manner.

LTU offers training across four key areas: CAT and Genny; Benchmark Utility Surveying; Cable and Fault Location Training and Radio-detection training. To find out more about LTU’s training offer go to www.utilitylocationtraining.co.uk

(CD/KMcA)